Axiata, CIMB, Maybank advance

KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips climbed in early trade on Friday, April 30, with some mild buying support for index linked stocks Axiata, CIMB and Maybank, in line with the firmer key regional markets.

At 10.03am, the FBM KLCI was up 9.79 points to 1,345.65. Turnover was 221.53 million shares valued at RM267 million. Advancers beat decliners 304 to 98, while 178 stocks were unchanged.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index opened 0.8% higher at 20,934.07 while Singapore's Straits Times Index added 0.68% to 2,979.24 and Japan's Nikkei 225 advanced 1.35% to 11,072.26. Shanghai's Composite Index slipped 0.63% to 2,850.50.

Maybank Equities Research said in its technical outlook for the FBM KLCI, due to the Dow's major overnight rise of 122.05 points, it expects the FBM KLCI to inch up initially and followed by profit-taking and liquidation later in the day.

"We believe that the FBM KLCI had a key rebound high on April 7, 2010 at 1,347.61. The bearish divergent signals suggest that the FBM KLCI had stalled near the 1,347.61 high. Short-term trading or scalping the market would be the best market strategy.

"For now, we believe that the market could be very volatile and risky - with little reward and more peril, as the Eurozone still remains very risky from a sovereign debt perspective. Trade with a very short-term horizon," it said.

Tanjong rose 34 sen to RM17.78, Axiata 14 sen to RM3.93, CIMB 14 sen also to RM14.28 while KLK and Maybank added 12 sen each to RM16.72 and RM7.60.

Among semicon-related counters, Unisem gained 12 sen to RM3.49 and MPI 11 sen to RM6.95.

BAT fell the most, down 22 sen to RM43.08, Hai-O seven sen to RM4.12 while Top Glove and SP Setia fell six sen each to RM12.64 and RM4.11.