KLCI down at opening, picks up, then down at noon

Tue 23.09.2008 1.23pm

KUALA LUMPUR: The benchmark Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) was down 1.88 points or 0.18% to stand at 1026.74 points at 12.12 pm Tuesday, in line with some other regional markets and Wall Street.

Losers led gainers 268 to 141 while 184 counters traded unchanged.

Active counters that rose included KNM, IOI Corp, Sime Darby added 15 sen to RM6.50 and Public Bank.

The KLCI was down 7.2 points or 0.70 percent at 1021.42 points at 9 am.

This follows the volatility that swept the financial markets again Monday as investors grew nervous about an amorphous government plan to buy $700 billion in banks' mortgage debt.

Stocks fell sharply, taking the Dow Jones industrials down more than 370 points, while investors sought safety in hard assets such as gold and oil, which at one point shot up more than $25 a barrel, the AP reported.

Light, sweet crude for November delivery was down 52 cents to US$108.85 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange midday Malaysian time.

The contract rose overnight US$6.62 to settle at US$109.37.

The October contract, which expired Monday, surged as much as US$25.45 to US$130 a barrel before falling back to settle at US$120.92, up US$16.37.

In the Kuala lumpur market volume traded was 37752 lots after the opening.

Losers led gainers 25 to 17 while eight counters were unchanged.

Half an hour later the KLCI picked up and stood at 1,030.04 and there were 67 gainers, 117 losers and 85 counters were traded unchanged.

Share prices on the London Stock Exchange closed down Monday and the FTSE 100-share index was down 75.07 points at 5,236.26.

Stock market benchmarks in South Korea, China, Hong Kong, India and Australia were also down Tuesday.

Japanese financial markets were closed Tuesday for Autumnal Equinox Day, a national holiday .

The Star

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