KLCI crosses 1,300 but eases by midday

By JOSEPH CHIN

KUALA LUMPUR: The KL Composite Index crossed the psychologically important 1,300 level in morning trade on Thursday on fund buying of heavyweights but the 100-stock index eased by midday on some profit taking.

At 12.30pm, the KLCI was just up 9.53 points to 1,297.69, the FBM Emas advanced 64.92 points to 8,763.69 but the FBM Second Board fell 3.85 points to 5,961.29.

Turnover was 523.51 million shares valued at RM701.28mil. There were 303 gainers, 287 losers while 236 counters were unchanged.

Other Asian markets were mostly higher, with the Shanghai A Share Index surging 7.29% or 250.74 points to 3,690.59 after the Chinese government cut the share trading tax. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 1.5% to 25,690.23, Singapore’s Straits Times Index gained 0.62% to 3,213.74 but Japan’s Nikkei 225 eased 0.02% to 13,576.34.

Light crude oil was at US$118 per barrel while crude palm oil futures fell RM43 to RM3,507 per tonne. The ringgit was quoted at RM3.31330 to the US dollar.

Aseambankers Equity Research, in a research note, said for the short-term outlook, it expected trading on Bursa to be volatile with upward bias. It advised investors to adopt a 3% to 5% stop-loss strategy.

KLCI’s immediate resistance would be between 1,315 and 1,320 while the interim support would be 1,220 to 1,215.

Dayang, which made its debut Thursday, was the most active counter with 31.52 million shares. It rose 12 sen to RM1.57.

Among the heavyweights, Telekom and Sime Darby rose 10 sen each to RM3.64 and RM9.95 while Maybank and Tenaga added five sen each to RM8.30 and RM6.80.

Nestle jumped RM1.50 to RM31.50 with 22,600 shares done after reporting a stronger set of first quarter earnings and a special dividend of 61.19 sen.

Timber-based Ta Ann added 45 sen to RM8 and WTK 25 sen to RM2.60. Other gainers were PPB, up 40 sen to RM10.50, LKT 30 sen to RM3.40 while MISC-F gained 25 sen to RM9.25.

Tanjong and Public Bank foreign added 20 sen each to RM16.40 and RM11.60 respectively.

Dutch Lady fell 20 sen to RM12.60 but with only 4,300 shares done. Utusan fell 19 sen to RM1.01, Lii Hen 14.5 sen to 60.5 sen while United Malacca, Keck Seng and Apex Healthcare lost 10 sen each to RM7.80, RM4.34 and RM1.59 respectively.

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