KLCI charges ahead, just 1 pt away from all-time intra-day high

KUALA LUMPUR: Fund buying of heavyweights Telekom, Tenaga and Public Bank
underpinned an otherwise cautious market sentiment in the morning
session on Friday, enabling the FBM KLCI to buck key regional markets.
At
12.30pm, the KLCI was up 6.61 points to 1,608.04, or one point away
from the all-time intra-day high of 1,609.33 on April 3 this year.
Turnover
was 877.64 million shares valued at RM699.05mil. Declining counters
beat advancers 370 to 201 while 290 stocks were unchanged.
Among
the key regional markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 was unchanged at 8,824.38;
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 1.03% to 19,067.51; Shanghai's
Composite Index fell 1.4% to 2,260.88; South Korea's Kospi 2.02% lower
to 1,850.96; Taiwan's Taiex 0.74% to 7,224.95 and Singapore's Straits
Times Index 0.44% to 2,817.65.
Weighing down regional markets
were growing fears on global growth and a downgrade of major bank
ratings hit risky assets, adding to gloom over the outlook for the
regional units, according to Reuters.
A Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
index signaled the worst contraction in manufacturing in almost a year,
while existing U.S. home sales fell more than forecast and jobless
claims exceeded estimates.
Moody's Investors Services cut credit ratings for Credit Suisse AG and 14 other banks, while the International Monetary Fund said Europe's debt crisis has reached a "critical stage."
On
the commodities front, US light crude oil rose 53 cents to US$78.73 and
Brent 71 cents to US$89.94. Crude palm oil third-month futures fell
RM42 to RM2,958. The ringgit was quoted at 3.1903 to the US dollar.
At
Bursa Malaysia, Telekom rose 24 sen to RM5.77, pushing the KLCI up 2.02
points while Tenaga added 13 sen to RM6.70, nudging the index up 1.67
points.
Public Bank rose 14 sen to RM13.92 and Axiata seven sen to RM5.49, pushing the KLCI up a total 2.94 points. Other gainers were Genting, up six sen to RM9.74 and Genting Malaysia three sen to RM3.63 while DiGi rose three sen to RM4.21.
MBMR-WA was the top gainer, up 30 sen to 60.5 sen, Pharmaniaga 13 sen to RM8.90 and MISC 11 sen to RM4.22. Takaful added 13 sen to RM6.08.
Luster
was the most active with 179.27 million shares done, up five sen to 19
sen while the warrants rose 2.5 sen to 13 sen with 119.31 units
transacted.
Among the decliners were Nestle, down 30 sen to RM57.50, PetDag 22 sen to RM21.58, Litrak 19 sen to RM3.91 while Jaya Tiasa fell 12 sen to RM8.74.