FBM KLCI extends gains for third day, finance stocks in focus

by **hlk** Wed 29 May 2013, 17:34

KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI extended its gains for the third day and
ended higher, buoyed by investors' appetite for banking stocks.
At
5pm, the local bourse climbed 7.31 points or 0.41% to 1,783.47, during
intra-day it went up to 10.25 points. HLBank gained 36 sen to RM14.36,
adding 1.25 points to the local barometer.
There were 527 gainers, 342 losers and 300 unchanged counters, with 2.66 billion shares traded valued at RM2.78 billion.
The index was buoyed by mainly finance related heavyweights, HLBank which gained 36 sen to RM14.36, Public Bank up 18 sen to RM16.94, HLFG rose 42 sen to RM15.66 and RHB Cap climbed 15 sen to RM8.85.
The
local barometer's counterpart, Korea's KOSPI Index closed at a
two-month high, breaching the 2,000 mark on foreign and pension funds
demand.
European stocks retreated, with the Stoxx Europe 600
Index clawing back some of its gains, after its biggest rally in more
than a month. US index futures also fell.
On the local front, Redtone International Bhd gained 9.5 sen or 17% to 63 sen after it roped in three more partners to bid for the digital terrestrial TV broadcast.
Among actives, Patimas gained 1.5 sen to 6.5 sen, Ingens slumped half a sen to 12 sen, and Luster was flat at to 20 sen.
Top gainers, Bursa added 20 sen to RM8.15, UMW rose 22 sen to RM14.48, Deleum gained 16 sen to RM3.35, and Naim increased 41 sen to RM4.51.
Losers, Dutch Lady down RM1.50 to RM47, Mentiga declined 25 sen to 75 sen, PetDag shed 16 sen to RM24.88 and AFG decreased 12 sen to RM4.82.
Key
regional markets were broadly higher with Japan's Nikkei 225 up 0.1% to
14,826.46, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index declined 1.61% to 22,554.93,
Shanghai's Composite Index inched up 0.12% to 2,324.02.
Taiwan's
Taiex was 0.91% lower at 8,337.90, South Korea's Kospi up 0.75% to
2001.20, and Singapore's Straits Times Index declined 1% to 3,372.11.
US light crude oil was down 65 cents to US$94.36, while Brent inched down 32 cent to US$103.91.
Spot gold was up US$5.17 to US$1,386.40, while the Ringgit weakened 0.0360 against the greenback to 3.0796.