Profit-taking trims gains

Share prices on Bursa Malaysia closed mixed yesterday as investors took profits after early gains.

The market opened on a stronger footing as sentiment was boosted by the strong rally on Wall Street overnight which lifted the Dow Jones Industrial Average past the crucial 10,000 level for the first time in more than a year on the back of upbeat earnings news.

Follow-through buying in heavyweights pushed the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) to an intra-day high of 1,256.59.

The benchmark index edged up 0.02 point to 1,246.86, surpassing Wednesday's closing record high of 1,246.84.

"Market sentiment is still firm, underpinned by bullish overseas markets. Mild profit-taking saw the FBM KLCI slipping below the 1,250 level in the afternoon session but it managed to finish the day in positive territory backed by late buying," one dealer said.

The FBM Emas Index added 0.49 point to 8,394.07, the FBM Top 100 increased 4.79 points to 8,176.04 and the FBM 70 advanced 23.30 points to 8,281.00 but the FBM ACE Index declined 5.30 points to 4,263.72. The Finance Index fell 2.11 points to 10,526.13, the Industrial Index shed 0.37 point to 2,666.75 while the Plantation Index gained 43.68 points to 6,075.01.

Decliners led advancers by 415 to 332 while 245 were unchanged and 302 were untraded. In active trading, turnover increased to 1.366 billion shares worth RM1.472 billion from 1.261 billion shares valued at RM1.655 billion on Wednesday.

Topping the most actives list was KNM Group which was unchanged at 84.5 sen, followed by asiaEP which rose 2 sen to 8.5 sen. Sern Kou Resources declined 14.5 sen to 46 sen and SAAG Consolidated shed 1/2 sen to 23 sen but Metronic Global rose 2 sen to 14.5 sen.

Of the heavyweights, conglomerate Sime Darby inched up 1 sen to RM8.70 but Maybank lost 2 sen to RM6.94 and CIMB Group declined 14 sen to RM12.18.Tenaga Nasional and IOI Corp increased 4 sen each to RM8.29 and RM5.37 respectively, but Genting declined 7 sen to RM7.32.

Meanwhile, FBM KLCI futures closed lower as profit-taking activities offset earlier gains, dealers said.

Spot month October 2009 contract and March 2010 declined 6 points each to 1,245.5 and 1,245.0 respectively.

November 2009 fell 6.5 points to 1,245.0 and December 2009 dropped 5.5 points to 1,245.5.- Bernama