Market close FBM KLCI falls 0.5% on correction, despite encouraging China numbers

by **Cals** Tue 03 Jun 2014, 00:01

Market close FBM KLCI falls 0.5% on correction, despite encouraging China numbers

Business & Markets 2014

Written by Jonathan Gan of theedgemalaysia.com

Monday, 02 June 2014 17:18

KUALA LUMPUR (June 2): FBM KLCI fell 0.49% today, led by decline in banking and oil stocks, despite China’s encouraging economic figures and regional gains.

At market close today, the FBM KLCI fell 9.13 points or 0.49% to settle at 1864.25. The fall was led by Public Bank Bhd, Petronas Gas Bhd and CIMB Group Holdings Bhd.

Despite an encouraging start in early session, the exchange declined into negative territory and stayed there until the end of the trading day.

The index hit a high of 1876.17 and a low of 1861.48

Decliners led the market with 515 losers versus 297 gainers, while 298 remained unchanged. The market saw trades of 1.33 billion shares worth RM1.95 billion.

Tahps Group Bhd led the top gainers list while Petronas Dagangan Bhd led the decliners. Sona Petroleum Bhd was the top active stock of the day.

Khoh Wei Keen, technical analyst at Kenanga Investment Bank told theedgemalaysia.com that a correction in the KLCI was imminent due to lack of catalysts.

“Following the results season that met expectations, a correction is expected for the composite index as it is a little bit toppish for the moment,” he said.

Khoh recommends an entry point below the 1830 mark and says he expects the exchange to trend downwards towards the 1855-1858 zone throughout the week.

The Asia-Pacific market saw more significant gains today with the Japanese Nikkei moving up 2.07% to 14935.92 and the South Korean Kospi inching up 0.35% to 2002.00

Reuters reported that encouraging China factory data and another closing record on Wall Street lifted Asian equities and commodities on Monday.

"Risk appetite has risen mainly on bright economic data from China, but the direction for the month will likely depend on other economic data like U.S. jobs figures this week," said Hikaru Sato, a senior technical analyst at Daiwa Securities in Tokyo.