Minor profit taking

Written by Joseph Chin
Tuesday, 13 October 2009 10:19

KUALA LUMPUR: Minor profit taking saw the FBM KLCI shed nearly one point in early trade on Tuesday, Oct 13 but most key Asian markets were slightly higher after the S&P 500 recorded a sixth consecutive day to end at its closing high for the year.

At 10am, the FBM KLCI shed 0.91 point to 1,232.42. Turnover was 153.57 million shares valued at RM94.13 million. The broader market was mixed with 164 gainers, 162 losers and 168 stocks unchanged.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index opened 0.5% higher at 21,412.20, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.39% to 10,055.15 and Shanghai's Composite Index added 0.31% to 2,903.59. Singapore's Straits Times Index eased 0.12% to 2,677.22 after the previous day's gains of 1.1% on improving GDP data.

Light crude oil fell 34 cents to US$72.93 while gold fell 0.35% or US$3.72 to 1,053.38.

Maybank Investment Research said the FBM KLCI corrected marginally by 0.49 point to 1,233.33 yesterday after hitting a new 52-week high. Resistance areas at 1,238 and 1,248 will cap market gains, whilst obvious support areas for the FBM KLCI are located at 1,215 and 1,233.

"Due to the DJIA's minor overnight rise of 20.85-points; we expect the FBM KLCI's upward movements to be shaky and stunted today. The FBM KLCI should peak quite soon following the aggressive rise from mid-April 2009. We advise clients who bought earlier to sell their stocks from current levels to the major 1,248.34-resistance," it said.

Maybank Research said an obvious move to lower liner and mid-cap stocks emerged last week. The rise could be an opportunity to take profit. Most stocks could be on the last Wave 5 move upwards. As such, price increases would be accompanied by profit-taking activities by longer-term investors.

At Bursa, Guinness fell the most, down 15 sen to RM6.95 with just 6,000 shares done. IJM PLANTATION []s and Berjaya Land lost seven sen each to RM2.71 and RM3.91 while AMMB, Sunrise and QSR gave up six sen each to RM4.49, RM2.51 and RM3.40 respectively.

ISS Consulting was the most active with 17.58 million shares done after Formis proposed to take control of the company. ISS rose 0.5 sen to 14 sen.
SILK rose 11 sen to 34.5 sen ahead of its upliftment from Practice Note 17 on Wednesday.

George Kent-LA was the top gainer, jumping 24.5 sen to 65.5 sen. Zecon rose 21.5 sen to 71.5 sen and Zecon-WA added 15 sen to 27 sen after it secured a RM182 million project in Sarawak.