Regional markets advance, FBM KLCI almost flat

KUALA LUMPUR: Key regional markets rose at the midday break on Friday, March 26 as investors' confidence was bolstered by an agreement to set up a safety net for Greece but at Bursa Malaysia, the key benchmark barely budged.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was a marginal 0.97 of a point up at 1,313.45. Turnover was 637.22 million shares valued at RM801.94 million. There were 377 gainers, 274 losers and 249 stocks unchanged.

Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.34% to 10,974.11; Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index added 0.38% to 20,858.29 and Shanghai's Composite Index added 1.26% to 3,057.30 while Singapore's Straits Times Index gained 0.46% to 2,901.55.

Crude palm oil futures fell RM23 to RM2,552 while light crude oil inched up 26 cents to US$80.79 and US spot gold gained US$4.05 to US$1,094.55.

Reuters reported euro zone leaders together with the International Monetary Fund on Thursday agreed to provide Greece with coordinated bilateral loans if the nation faced severe difficulties.

Meanwhile, of concern at Bursa Malaysia is that foreign funds were again marginal net sellers of Malaysian equities in February, the third month in a row.

According to CIMB Equities Research, it was slightly surprised that investors continue to sell down Malaysia
even though foreign shareholdings have reached a record low.

"Foreign funds may turn net buyers in March as the market rebounded during the month and several major
conferences held this month could have attracted interest. We maintain our OVERWEIGHT stance on Malaysia and KLCI target of 1,450, based on a midcycle P/E target of around 15 times," it said.

Proton rose 23 sen to RM4.50 with 1.05 million shares done while DRB-Hicom gained 15 sen to RM1.17 with 16.4 million units done.

Among index-linked stocks, Maybank, CIMB and Sime Darby rose four sen each to RM7.43, RM14 and RM8.65 while IOI Corp added the sen to RM5.41.

Tanjong gained eight sen to RM17.98. Smaller PLANTATION []s which advanced were Sungei Bagan and Batu Kawan, which rose 14 sen each to RM2.60 and RM10.70.

On the other hand, Public Bank and Telekom fell four sen each to RM11.60 and RM3.44.

MPHB and MPHB-CA were flat at RM2.24 and 33.5 sen after the rally on Thursday on expectations of stronger first quarter earnings from its jackpot game.

KNM was the most active with 38 million shares done, easing 1.5 sen to 71 sen.

Jerneh fell 11 sen to RM2.74 and the warrants eight sen to RM1.46 as mild profit taking set in after the previous week's rally.