Local bourse continues positive new year trading

KUALA LUMPUR:The FBM KLCI
continues to trade within the positive region while other key Asian
bourses were mostly positive despite the cautious global economic
atmosphere.
The local benchmark traded higher at 1506.81 points,
up 2.59 points or 0.17% at the mid-day break. There were 306 gainers,
300 losers and 334 unchanged counters. 754.28mil shares were traded
worth RM579.57mil.
Gainers were led by blue chip Dutch Lady Milk Industries Bhd, climbing 60 sen to RM24.60; Timberwell Bhd up 28 sen to RM1.08 while Can-One Bhd gained 24 sen to RM1.30.
Counters in the red were Far East Holdings Bhd sliding 10 sen to RM7.10; Malayan Flour Mills Bhd dropping 9 sen to RM7.14 and Yeo Hiap Seng (M) Bhd falling 9 sen to RM2.03.
Hwang DBS
Vickers Research was quoted: “If the FBM KLCI falls beneath the
psychological mark of 1,500 then the benchmark index could pull back
further ahead.”
The research house added that the key market
barometer dropped for the second day in a row, slipping 9.3 points to
bring its cumulative loss to 26.5 points or 1.7% since the beginning of
the year.
“In contrast, its closest regional peers the
Philippines (+1.5%), Indonesia (+1.3%) and Thailand (+1.1%) chalked up
strong gains,” it said.
It expects stocks like JCY International, Proton and UEM Land to garner investors' attention today, albeit against a cautious market backdrop.
JCY, its warrant CD and Proton warrant CL were among the top five stocks in terms of volume traded at the mid-day break.
Reasons
being JCY International, in an unprecedented practice by Malaysia
corporate, had announced via the stock exchange that the group is
expected to show a steep jump of 1,900% year-on-year and 460%
quarter-on-quarter in its net profit to approximately RM150m for the
Oct-Dec 2011 quarter.
Also, Proton having its chairman publicly
said he has put in a bid to buy over Khazahan Nasional's 42.7% stake in
the national car maker; and UEM Land, given its exposure in Iskandar
Development, more investments and initiatives may be announced when the
Prime Minister of Malaysia and Singapore meet this morning.
Around the region, only Tokyo's Nikkei 225 lost 0.66% to 8503.28. Other bourses traded positive.
Shanghai
A index was up 0.50% to 2168.33; Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index recorded a
0.44% increase at 18810.38 while Korea's Kospi went up 0.30% to
1871.85.
Closer to home, Singapore's Straits Times Index also climbed 0.57% to 2726.44.
Nymex crude oil was quoted at US$103.19, spot gold at US$1615.70 and silver at US$29.31.
The US dollar was quoted at 3.1402 while the euro at 4.0582.