Blue chips advance, consumer stocks, TM up

by **hlk** Wed 18 Jul 2012, 11:28

KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips climbed in early trade on Wednesday, with consumer dividend stocks and Telekom Malaysia among the gainers.

At 10.01am, the FBM KLCI rose 2.03 points to 1,641.18. There were 247.98 million shares done valued at RM175.03mil. There were 218 gainers, 156 losers and 243 counters unchanged.

Bloomberg reported Asian stocks were little changed after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said U.S. policy makers are prepared to act to boost economic growth and amid concern Asian company profits are falling.

The report said the MSCI Asia Pacific Index (MXAP) was little changed at 116.15 as of 10.41am in Tokyo. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 10% from this year's high on Feb. 29 through Tuesday as Chinese companies issued negative profit warnings as the nation's economic growth slows, and amid concerns about Europe's debt crisis.

At Bursa Malaysia, among the consumer stocks, Nestle was the top gainer, up 60 sen to RM59.10 and F&N 20 sen to RM18.58. TM extended its gains, adding nine sen to RM6.24.

PetDag rose 28 sen to RM21.52, Tradewinds 25 sen to RM8.89, HLFG 16 sen to RM12.46 and Ingress 11 sen to RM1.35.

Hing Yap gave up some of its recent gains, sliding 20 sen to RM2.65. Media Chinese International fell seven sen to RM1.58 after the price surge following its 41 sen dividend plan.

Cybertowers extended its fall for the fifth day, down 6.5 sen to 53.5 sen.