Hopes of US Fed's stimulus measures drive markets higher

by **hlk** Wed 20 Jun 2012, 17:30

KUALA LUMPUR: Key regional markets including Malaysia advanced in
the morning session on Wednesday on investors' expectations the US
Federal Reserve might announce added stimulus measures at this week's
meeting.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 2.54 points or 0.16% to
1,597.52. Turnover was 652.81 million shares valued at RM608.87mil.
Advancing counters beat decliners two to one, with 418 gainers, 209
losers and 297 stocks unchanged.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.94% to 8,736.87; Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index
added 0.44% to 19,502.49; Taiwan's Taiex up 0.49% to 7,308.72; South
Korea's Kospi 0.28% to 1,897 and Singapore's Straits Times Index0.2% to
2,847.98. Shanghai's Composite Index slipped 0.13% to 2,297.88.
US
light crude oil fell 12 cents to US$83.91 and Brent slipped four cents
to US$95.72. Spot gold rose US$2.86 to US$1,621.25. Crude palm oil
third-month futures surged RM90 to RM3,038.
At Bursa Malaysia,
there was more institutional buying of index-linked stocks and the
sentiment continued to be firm, while gaining stocks beat losers more
than two to one.
Among the KLCI component stocks, YTL rose six sen to RM2.11, pushing up the KLCI 1.04 points. Petronas Dagangan added 32 sen to RM21.38, UMW four sen to RM8.88 and AMMB two sen to RM6.27.
Pharmaniaga
rose 66 sen to RM9.15. Since it resumed trading last Friday after
meeting the public shareholding spread, the share price has almost
doubled from its pre-suspension price of RM4.99.
Also among the
top gainers were Takaful, up 27 sen to RM6.02 while BIMB added 20 sen
to RM3.37 and BIMB-CF 30 sen higher at 50 sen.
Again consumer
dividend stocks were among the gainers, with BAT up 46 sen to RM56.46
with just 100 shares, Dutch Lady added 32 sen to RM35.78.
Aeon Credit rose 60 sen to RM11.82, Jaya Tiasa 29 sen to RM9.14 and Shell 19 sen to RM9.50.
Among the decliners were Sarawak Oil Palms, down 23 sen to RM6.22 while Batu Kawan shed 10 sen to RM18.06 on profit taking despite the run-up in CPO prices on Wednesday.
Panasonic Malaysia lost 14 sen to RM22.22, Carlsberg fell 14 sen to RM12.02 and Uzma nine sen to RM2.06.