Plantations weigh on blue chips

Written by Joseph Chin
Tuesday, 29 December 2009 10:22

KUALA LUMPUR: Mild profit taking on PLANTATION [] stocks including KL Kepong and Genting Plantations weighed down blue chips in early trade on Tuesday, Dec 29, despite the firmer overnight close on Wall Street.

At 10am, the FBM KLCI shed 0.73 of a point to 1,272. Turnover was 137.68 million shares valued at RM115.75 million. There were 190 gainers, 104 losers and 161 stocks unchanged.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index opened 0.4% higher at 21,566.77; Shanghai's Composite Index rose 0.29% to 3,197.91 and but Japan's Nikkei 225 shed 0.07% to 10,627.25. Singapore's Straits Times Index added 0.17% to 2,860.49.

Light crude oil eased five cents to US$78.72 while US spot gold fell US$4 to 1,103.28.

HwangDBS Vickers Research said key US equity indices rose between 0.1% and 0.3% at the closing bell lifted mainly by rising commodity-related counters. Although the gains were pretty marginal, they managed to push the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite to finish at new highs for 2009.

It said as for Bursa Malaysia, the positive momentum seemed to be on the pick-up too. The futures contracts (for spot month as well as January 2010) remain above the underlying FBM KLCI level at the moment, indicating the rally could sustain.

"On the chart, the benchmark FBM KLCI - which ended at its intra-day high of 1,272.73 yesterday - will want to build on its four-day winning streak of a cumulative gain of 17.1-point ahead. Still, amid the light trading interest, the key market barometer is not expected to cross the immediate resistance level of 1,280 just yet," it said.

KL Kepong fell the most, down 16 sen to RM16.20 with 87,400 shares done. Genting Plantations shed seven sen to RM6.22 and PPB shed four sen to RM15.96.


Other decliners were LPI, down six sen to RM13.40, BAT four sen lower to RM42.20 and Padini four sen to RM3.66. Penny stocks PLB lost nine sen to 83 sen and Ho Hup 8.5 sen to 65 sen.

Scomi counters were the most active, with Scomi up one sen to 46 sen with 16.29 million shares done, Scomi-LA up 0.5 sen to 11 sen and Scomi-WA one sen to 17.5 sen.

KPJ shares rose 19 sen to RM6.28 ahead of the suspension of its shares from Jan 4 after it proposed a one-into-two share split. It will also undertake a one for four bonus issue.

Among property stocks, Magna Prima added 13 sen to RM3.11 and SP Setia nine sen to RM3.91 while national car maker Proton advanced nine sen to RM4.11.