KLCI bucks regional markets, CIMB, IOI lift

KUALA LUMPUR: Mild fund buying of CIMB and IOI Corp helped push the FBM KLCI to a 2-1/2 week high on Wednesday as the 30-stock bucked the regional markets which sank on worries Spain could seek a bailout.
At
5pm, the KLCI was up 9.85 points or 0.63% to 1,575.17. Turnover was
920.86 million shares valued at RM1.24bil. There were 378 gainers, 331
losers and 318 counters unchanged.
For the past two days, the
KLCI had chalked up gains of nearly 20 points, despite a weaker start
earlier on Wednesday. Fresh corporate developments and announcements
provided the lift to the investors' sentiment while there was a notable
increase in trading volume also.
Meanwhile, AFP reported that
Asian markets fell on worries Spain could be forced to seeking a
bailout while China dashed previous hopes it will introduce fresh
stimulus measures to boost its economy.
The euro also set new
two-year lows against the dollar as attention turned away from positive
news from Greece at the weekend that had provided some lift earlier
this week.
Among the key regional markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng
Index fell 1.92% at 18,690.22; Japan's Nikkei 225 slipped 0.28% to
8,633.19; Shanghai's Composite Index 0.21% to 2,384.67; South Korea's
Kospi 0.27% to 1,844.86; Taiwan's Taiex 1.10% to 7,261.80 and
Singapore's Straits Times Index 0.64% to 2,783.95.
US light
crude oil fell US$1.11 to US$89.65; crude palm oil third-month futures
RM56 to RM3,122 while the ringgit weakened to 2.1620 against the US
dollar.
At Bursa Malaysia, CIMB rose 13 sen to RM7.49, pushing the KLCI up 2.28 points while IOI added 15 sen to RM5.23, pushing the index up 2.27 points.
YTL rose seven sen to RM1.89 and BAT jumped RM2.30 to RM54.40.
Pestech closed down nine sen to 91 sen on its first trading day with 5.09 million shares done.
SP Setia and Nestle
fell 20 sen each to RM3.80 and RM53 while BLD Plantations shed 17 sen
to RM7.95, Parkson 11 sen to RM4.74 and Kulim 10 sen to RM4.45.