Malaysia in spotlight, bucks European, Asian markets

by **hlk** Wed 22 Aug 2012, 19:05

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian stock market was in the spotlight on Wednesday when the key FBM KLCI outperformed key regional markets and European bourses, boosted by gains in Maybank after its strong earnings last week.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI was up 2.46 points or 0.15% to 1,652.25 but off the intra-day high of 1,655.39. The KLCI was also lifted by some fund buying of Tenaga and Petronas-related counters. Maybank saw 22.26 million shares done.
CIMB Equities Research had maintained its Outperform recommendation on Maybank and its top pick based on attractive dividend yield and robust loan growth. The research house also expected Maybank to be the biggest beneficiary of ETP project financing.
Turnover on Bursa Malaysia was 1.35 billion shares valued at RM1.62bil. There were 399 gainers, 379 losers and 301 counters unchanged.
Meanwhile, global shares slipped from 3-1/2 month highs on Wednesday as investors weighed up whether signs of progress in the euro zone debt crisis warranted the recent surge and as Japan provided a reminder of the problems facing top economies, Reuters reported.
The uncertainty over Europe's debt woes have left major economies stuttering, but many big stock markets have risen 15% to 20% since June on expectations of central bank action to address the crisis.
Among the key regional markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.27% to 9,131.74; Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slipped 1.06% to 19,887.78; Shanghai's Composite Index eased 0.50% to 2,107.71; Taiwan's Taiex shed 0.14% to 7,496.58 and South Korea's Kospi lower by 0.41% to 1,935.19 while Singapore's Straits Times Index gave up 0.53% to 3,049.47.
US light crude oil fell three cents to US$96.81 and Brent 38 cents lower at US$114.26. Spot gold gained US$4.33 to US$1,642.13.
The ringgit weakened to 3.1201 against the US dollar.
Crude palm oil for third-month futures rose RM99 to RM3,061 per tonne.
At Bursa Malaysia, there was some fund buying of Petronas-related counters with Petronas Dagangan up 62 sen to RM23 and Petronas Gas22 sen higher at RM19.50.
Maybank rose 14 sen to RM9.19 with 22.26 million shares done, pushing the KLCI up 2.49 points while Tenaga added four sen to RM6.84 and nudging the index uo 0.51 of a point. UMW gained 36 sen to RM10.32 and added nearly one point to the index.
Aeon Credit added 46 sen to RM11.98, BAT 30 sen to RM62.50 while Allianz-PA and Allianz added 16 sen each to RM6.44 and RM6.53.
Ingenuity-WA was the most active with 206.37 million warrants done, up 0.5 sen to 18 sen while the shares jumped seven sen to 40.5 sen with 95.13 million units transacted.
Pharmaniaga was the top loser, down 40 sen to RM7.39 amid the lack of fresh positive news since it share price surge on June 18 after it resumed trading.
Tradewinds fell 27 sen to RM8.08, Tasek 16 sen to RM11.68 and Bernas 14 sen to RM3.48.
Among the index-linked stocks, Genting Malaysia fell nine sen to RM3.40 and CIMB five sen to RM7.81.