Market advances amid mild profit taking

KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips on Bursa Malaysia advanced in early trade on Wednesday, Jan 6 but they were off their early highs on mild profit taking while key regional markets were higher.

At 10am, the FBM KLCI rose 0.85 of a point to 1,289.09, off the early high of 1,293. Turnover was 411.42 million shares valued at RM243.39, reflecting the lower quality of buying. The broader market saw 197 gainers, 239 losers while 196 stocks were unchanged.

Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.41% to 10,726.13 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index added 0.2% to 22,320.27 after rising 2.09% yesterday. Singapore's Straits Times Index added 0.23% to 2,927.05 and Shanghai's Composite Index slipped 0.18% to 3,276.31 at 9.47am.

Light crude oil fell 18 cents to US$81.59 while US spot gold advanced US$3.82 to US$1,121.82.

HwangDBS Vickers Research said the market was likely to pull back slightly on Wednesday amid a dearth of news flows to sustain any further gain.

On Tuesday, the FBM KLCI index climbed 1% to end at a 12-month high of 1,288.24 coupled with heightened trading interest as trading volume increased to 1.9 billion units from 1.1 billion on Monday.

"Adding support to our view is the mixed overnight performance on the U.S stock market as the key indices closed between -0.1% and +0.3%. On the chart, our benchmark FBM KLCI may face a mild retreat today though it may not break below its immediate supporting level at 1,280," it said.

BAT rose 30 sen to RM43 while PPB and Shell added 18 sen each to RM16.42 and RM10.78 while Public Bank foreign advanced 16 sen to RM11.40. DIGi and Nestle rose 10 sen each to RM21.80 and RM34.40.

Ho Hup rose 28 sen to RM2.04 after the company said it was considering a possible fund raising exercise to raise the necessary funds for its immediate operational requirements pending the implementation of the proposed regularisation plan.

The Edge FinancialDaily reported ousted managing director Datuk Low Tuck Choy could be trying to take control of Ho Hup.

Compugates was the most active with 50 million shares done. It shed 0.5 sen to seven sen.

BLD PLANTATION []s fell the most, down 20 sen to RM3.80 while Dutch Lady gave up six sen to RM11.90. Toyo Ink fell six sen to RM2.09 as traders locked in gains after it said it was looking into a rights issue to part-finance its Vietnam power plant.

Genting fell six sen to RM2.09 ahead of the opening of the integrated resorts Resorts World Sentosa on Jan 20 but without the casino.