Sime, banks dip in early trade

KUALA LUMPUR: Sime Darby and banks dipped in early trade on Tuesday, April 27 on mild profit taking, as investors took their cue from the weaker Wall Street performance.

At 9.23am, the FBM KLCI was down 1.72 points to 1,338.35. Turnover was 107.11 million shares valued at RM45.31 million. There were 97 gainers, 109 losers and 158 stocks unchanged.

CIMB Equities Research said the FBMKLCI consolidated in a range-bound trade on Monday, still trying hard to fill the March 2008 gap of 1,344-1,354, which has only been partially “filled”. In the near term, prices may continue to stay volatile as the bears refuse to give in.

The research house said the benchmark still needs to inch past the 1,343 key resistance before the market heads towards 1,360 next. Until then, it still cannot totally eliminate the short term negative view on the index.

“On the downside, even if there is a pullback, we do not think that the correction is going to be substantial if the 1,320 support is not breached,” it said.

Sime Darby fell six sen to RM8.72 in thin trade while among banks, AMMB shed five sen to RM5.02 and CIMB four sen to RM14.26. The call warrants of Citigroup-C3 lost 4.5 sen to 34 sen.

Keck Seng, which had a strong run-up in recent weeks, fell the most, down 13 sen to RM5.50 with 12,000 shares done. Down four sen each were Genting to RM6.66 and George Kent to RM1.48.

Talam was the most active with 18.1 million shares done, unchanged 16.5 sen.

Tejari, which surged on Monday ahead of its earnings, added four sen to 29 sen in active trade.

Top Glove rose 14 sen to RM13.12 and the call warrants, Top Glove-CC 3.5 sen to 18.5 sen. Other gainers were Apex Health, up seven sen to RM 2.98 while education services providers SEGI added 11 sen to RM2.33 and HELP six sen to RM2.51.