Profit taking on banks drags KLCI into the red

KUALA LUMPUR: Profit taking of index-linked stocks, especially banks,
dragged the FBM KLCI into the red on Thursday but the broader market
was still resilient with rising interest in smaller capitalised stocks.
At
the close, the KLCI was down 7.93 points or 0.45% to 1,766.07. Turnover
was 2.45 billion shares valued at RM2.52bil. Advancing counters beat
decliners more than two to one, with 558 gainers to 214 losers while 269
counters were unchanged.
With Thursday being the settlement date
for payment for stocks bought during Monday's rally, investors were
seen taking profit on CIMB, Maybank and Public Bank and also Petronas-linked stocks.
Analysts
had expected the big caps to consolidate their gains after the hefty
run-up on Monday and Tuesday. Monday's massive relief rally drove the
KLCI to a historic intra-day high of 1,826.
The ringgit was quoted at 2.9737 compared with 2.9625 the previous day.
CIMB
fell the most, down 26 sen to RM8.31 with 18.51 million shares done,
Maybank was down 18 sen to RM9.98 with 20.18 million units and Public
Bank 14 sen lower to RM16.62 with 2.26 shares traded.
The decline in the three banking stocks erased 8.82 points from the KLCI.
Petronas Dagangan fell 24 sen to RM24.36 and Petronas Gas 20 sen to RM20.30 while Genting Bhd was down 10 sen to RM10.80.
Crude palm oil for third-month futures fell RM6 to RM2,283.
Among the plantations, Sarawak Oil Palms fell 14 sen to RM5.53. However, Sime Darby rose six sen to RM9.51 and KL Kepong four sen to RM21.68.
IOI Corp surged 21 sen to RM5.33 before trading was halted at 11.02am for a corporate announcement to be released later.
MAS
rights shares rebounded from the recent selldown, surging 4.5 sen to
7.5 sen with 103.52 million units done. The rights shares started
trading on Tuesday. MAS rose two sen to 36.5 sen.
Among the consumer stocks, Nestle
fell 20 sen to RM64.20 but GAB rose 60 sen to RM20.16, Dutch Lady 50
sen to RM47.32, BAT 44 sen to RM64 and Carlsberg 28 sen to RM15.36.
Among the key regional markets:
Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.66% to 14,191.48;
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.14% to 23,211.48;
Shanghai's Composite Index fell 0.59% to 2,232.97;
Taiwan's Taiex rose 0.23% to 8,285.89;
South Korea's Kospi rose 1.18% to 1,979.45 and
Singapore's Straits Times Index rose 0.54% to 3,431.58.
US light crude oil fell 52 cents to US$96.10 and Brent 48 cents to US$103.86.
Spot gold lost US$3.52 to US$1,470.41.