Penny stocks to the fore, KLCI flat (Update)

KUALA LUMPUR: Penny stocks rose in active trade on Wednesday as
trading interest rotated into these counters, which were playing
catch-up after the rally in blue chips pushed the FBM KLCI to record
highs.
At 12.30pm, the KLCI was unchanged at 1,788.43. Turnover
was 1.75 billion shares valued at RM1.20bil. There were 538 gainers, 238
losers and 264 counters unchanged.
BIMB Securities Research said
investors were now rather mixed on the outlook for the local bourse as
recent rerating of the KLCI targets by most research houses did not
commensurate with their bottom-up approach.
"With such a
divergence in valuation for index-linked counters, stock pickings seem
impossible hence we are seeing the smaller and mid-caps companies
benefitting and are playing catch up.
"At current level, market
price-to-earnings is at a high of 16.5 times on 2013 earnings.
Nonetheless, as usual during a liquidity fuelled rally, valuations does
not matter thus we believe the index to retest the 1,780 level again,"
BIMB Research said.
Hubline
rose 0.5 sen to 6.5 sen and it was the most active with 134.55 million
shares done while its warrants added one sen to 2.5 sen with 76.34
million units done.
NiCorp rose 2.5 sen to 22.5 sen, Luster two sen to 12.5 sen and Karambunai 1.5 sen to 14 sen.
China
Stationery rose 2.5 sen to 34.5 sen, Harvest 3.5 sen to 44.5 sen, Tiger
2.5 sen to 35 sen while CAP added 1.5 sen to 41 sen. CAP was flat at
five sen.
Among the KLCI stocks, Petronas Gas rose 74 sen to RM21.74, Petronas Chemical eight sen higher at RM6.60 and Petronas Dagangan six sen to RM24.94.
Maybank rose four sen to RM10.18 and HLFG two sen to RM15.68 but Hong Leong Bank shed four sen to RM14.36 and Public Bank dipped twp sen tp RM16.78
Crude palm oil for third-month futures fell RM14 to RM2,288 per tonne. PPB Group rose 18 sen to RM13.90, FGV three sen to RM4.58 but IOI Corp and Genting Plantations fell seven sen each to RM5.39 and RM8.93 while Darby slipped two sen to RM9.58.
As for consumer stocks, Carlsberg rose 32 sen to RM15.80 but BAT fell 10 sen to RM64.68. Nestle fell 12 sen to RM65.26 and BAT 10 sen lower at RM64.68.
Car companies climbed, with Tan Chong adding 26 sen to RM6.50 while Oriental Holdings, whose core businesses are cars and plantations, added 24 sen to RM10.60.
Prestariang jumped 28 sen to an all-time high of RM1.82 after CIMB Equities Research started coverage of the company.
Among the key regional markets:
Japan's Nikkei 225 rallied 2.11% to 15,069.27;
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.51% to 23,046.25;
Shanghai's Composite Index fell 0.11% to 2,214.57;
Taiwan's Taiex rose 0.34% to 8,280.22;
South Korea's Kospi fell 0.01% to 1,968.56; and
Singapore's Straits Times Index rose 0.15% to 3,437.92.
The ringgit weakened against the US dollar to 2,9984 from the previous close of 2.9895.
US light crude oil rose 13 cents to US$94.34 and Brent eight cents higher at US$102.68.
Spot gold rose 32 cents to US$1,425.78.