Plantations weigh on market

Written by Joseph Chin
Thursday, 03 December 2009 13:16

KUALA LUMPUR: The market slipped into the red at the midday break on Thursday, Dec 3, with PLANTATION []s among the major decliners on concerns the crude palm oil futures may have run up too high.

The 30-stock FBM KLCI fell 0.41 of a point to 1,270.74. Turnover was 342.49 million shares valued at RM338.85 million. There were 206 gainers, 291 losers and 244 counters unchanged.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 3.38% to 9,933.81 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 0.6% to 22,427.02. However, Shanghai’s Composite Index fell 0.43% to 3,255.61 and Singapore’s Straits Times Index lost 0.3% to 2,795.58.

On Bursa Malaysia, Batu Kawan fell 12 sen to RM10.22, Sarawak Plantations 11 sen to RM2.04, NSOP 10 sen to RM4.12 while Riverview shed seven sen to RM2.34, IOI Corp shed one sen to RM5.39 while KL Kepong was unchanged at RM16.

Bloomberg quoted industry publication Oil World 's editor-in-chief Thomas Mielke as saying palm oil futures were “over-valued”. However, any decline in CPO prices would be limited as it was still trading at a discount to rival soybean oil.

March CPO futures fell RM9 to RM2,485 bu,t year-to-date, they were up 42.8% at the midday break.

BAT was the top loser, down 14 sen to RM45.14 with 23,400 shares done as it came under some profit taking.

Harvest-WA was the most active counter with 21.89 million shares done, down 2.5 sen to 18.5 sen. Harvest fell 3.5 sen to 28.5 sen.

Among the gainers were Jerneh, adding 13 sen to RM1.89 while the warrants, Jerneh-WA added 13.5 sen 83 sen in active trade as investors viewed the disposal of its insurance business as positive.

BTM-OR was the top gainer, hitting limit-up, rising 30 sen to 61.5 sen with 658,700 shares done. BTM added 29.5 sen to RM1.01.

CIMB added 10 sen to RM12.90.