Mixed, dealers lock in profits

SHARE prices on Bursa Malaysia ended mixed yesterday as investors locked in profits in most heavyweights and lower liners amid the lacklustre performance of regional bourses, dealers said.

In volatile trading, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) closed 0.79 point or 0.06 per cent lower at 1,270.96. The key index had moved between the 1,267.70 and 1,273.23 levels. It had opened 1.42 points higher at 1,273.17.

"Overall, the local bourse was weak due to the bearish regional markets. Profit taking was widespread, especially in plantation related stocks which had posted strong gains," a dealer said.

However, Lityan and NSTP bucked the market trend and helped limit the losses. NSTP shares surged 40 sen to close at RM2.40 on a higher takeover offer from the Media Prima Group and a special dividend while Lityan, which has been queried by Bursa Malaysia Securities recently over a price and volume increase, also climbed 40 sen to RM2.71.

The FBM Emas eased 0.34 point to 8,488.83 and the FBM Top 100 lost 2.07 points to 8,281.01. The FBM 70, however, advanced 10.20 points to 8,178.10 and the FBM ACE gained 20.13 points to 4,523.87. The Finance Index also gained 34.58 points to 10,927.30 but the Industrial Index fell 1.75 points to 2,697.98 and the Plantation Index shed 14.39 points to 6,179.32.

Gainers beat losers by 315 to 311 while 276 counters were unchanged and 372 untraded.

Turnover on the Main Market declined to 709.956 million shares worth RM972.125 million versus 804.835 million shares worth RM1.210 billion posted on Thursday.

Leading the actives, Time Engineering gained 3.5 sen to 50 sen, Inch Kenneth rose 6.5 sen to 50.5 sen and Ramunia edged up 1 sen to 42.5 sen.

Hubline-warrants and Talam, were however unchanged at 13 sen and 11 sen, respectively.

Of the heavyweights, Petronas Gas fell 9 sen to RM9.80 and Sime Darby lost 3 sen to RM9.06 while CIMB Group rose 2 sen to RM12.92 and Malaysia Airlines was up 8 sen to RM3.20.

FBM KLCI futures contracts on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives retained their upward trend yesterday, despite the weaker cash market, dealers said.

The November 2009 contract rose 4.5 points to settle at 1,273.0 and the December 2009 contract perked up 4.0 points to 1,273.5.

The March 2010 and June 2010 contracts advanced 2.5 points each to 1,277.0 and 1,279.0, respectively.

The day's volume however, was lower at 3,747 lots compared with Thursday's 4,244 lots while open interests declined to 16,719 contracts versus 17,175 contracts previously. - Bernama

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