FBM KLCI stays in red at mid-morning

KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI recovered some lost ground at mid-morning Wednesday, May 5 after it tumbled more than 15 points when trading opened in the morning.

At 10am, the benchmark index was down 9.59 points to 1,333.30. Trading was thin with 186.88 million shares valued at RM243.13 million. Losers thumped gainers by 443 to 49, while 139 counters traded unchanged.

Asian markets also fell this morning after the overnight tumble on Wall Street, with Taiwan's TAIEX Index falling 2.66% to 7,719.73, the Shanghai Composite Index down 1.34% to 2,797.36, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index down 1.89% to 4,647.70 and the Singapore Straits Times Index down 1.16% to 2,867.60.

Investors dumped US stocks on Tuesday in Wall Street's worst session in three months on the fear that even with a bailout for Greece, Europe's debt crisis could spread to other weak euro zone countries, according to Reuters.

The sell-off echoed a wave of fear that gripped financial markets as investors fretted the crisis in Europe could derail the global economic recovery. A gauge of investor fear jumped more than 18%, it said.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 225.06 points, or 2.02%, to 10,926.77. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 28.66 points, or 2.38% to 1,173.60, and the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 74.49 points, or 2.98% to 2,424.25.

Maybank Investment Bank Research said FBM KLCI's resistance areas at 1,342 and 1,355 would cap market gains, whilst the weaker support areas are located at 1,325 and 1,340.

"Due to the Dow's major overnight plunge of 225.06 points, we expect the FBM KLCI to plunge initially to be followed by some local bargain hunting later today," it said in a note this morning.

Among the major losers on Bursa Malaysia Securities this morning were LPI Capital that fell 50 sen to RM15.24, BAT down 46 sen to RM44.02, KLK and Tan Chong down 22 sen each to RM16.48 and RM4.18, and Nestle down 18 sen to RM35.02.

Meanwhile, Genting fell 17 sen to RM6.37 while Hartalega lost 16 sen to RM7.16.

Gainers this morning included DFZ Capital that added 19 sen to RM4.29, Century up 10 sen to RM1.70, Tradewinds up 8 sen to RM3.16, Vitrox up 5 sen to 83 sen while Atis, Prestar and Taliworks added 3 sen each to RM1.29, 53 sen and RM1.99.

Talam was the most actively traded counter with 10.81 million shares done. The counter fell half a sen to 13.5 sen. Other actives this morning included KNM, Encorp, Scomi and Berjaya Corp.