KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 9 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia ended firmer today as strong gains on plantation-related stocks led by IOI Corporation and Sime Darby lifted the benchmark index into positive territory, dealers said.
Expectation of more positive corporate earnings and Wall Street’s rise last Friday also helped to boost market sentiment, they said.
The FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) rose 6.99 points or 0.6 per cent to close at 1,267.75 after trading at an intraday low of 1,259.23. It opened 1.38 points higher at 1,262.14 this morning.
One of the dealers said the local market was still resilient as there was still ample liquidity in the system.
“Increasing doubts on the sustainability of the recent market uptick and global economic recovery were unable to significantly dent buying interest nor spur further sellling,” he said.
The dealer said the coming visit by China’s President Hu Jin-tao was also buoying expectation of more bilateral collaborations betwen the two countries which should help the market to maintain its composure in the near term.
At close, the FBM Emas Index added 49.48 points to 8,472.31, the FBM Top 100 advanced 48.16 points to 8,258.27 and the FBM 70 jumped 57.98 points to 8,148.26.
The FBM ACE Index, however, fell 6.29 points to 4,681.36. The Finance Index gained 15.51 points to 10,791.80, the Industrial Index climbed 9.88 points to 2,709.75 and the Plantation Index went up 139.51 points to 6,198.42.
Gainers led losers by 403 to 292 while 229 counters were unchanged and 347 untraded.
Overall turnover was lower at 1.100 billion shares worth RM1.179 billion compared with last Friday’s close of 1.428 billion shares worth RM1.513 billion.
Turnover on the Main Market declined to 938.908 million shares worth RM1.138 billion from 1.090 billion shares valued RM1.402 billion last Friday.
The ACE Market volume dropped to 113.044 million shares worth RM23.758 million from 301.984 million shares worth RM96.961 million previously.
Warrants’ volume fell to 16.180 million shares worth RM3.419 million from 19.829 million shares valued at RM4.074 million last Friday.
Topping the actives, Talam and Multi Sports Holdings edged up 1.5 sen each to close at 12.5 sen and 69 sen respectively while Inch Kenneth rose 12 sen to 49.5 sen, SAGG Consolidated was flat at 21 sen and Naim Indah went up one sen to seven sen.
Mudajaya was the top gainer, up 26 sen to RM3.75, while the top loser was Panamy which lost 36 sen to RM12.20.
Among the heavyweights, IOI Corporation climbed 24 sen to RM5.57, Axiata Group advanced five sen to RM3.12 and Hong Leong Bank rose 14 sen to RM8.24.
Sime Darby went up 10 sen to RM9.14 amid talks that the Malaysian government was preparing “something special” for Chinese President Hu Jintao’s state visit to Malaysia this week, including a deal to sell 10 per cent stake in the company.
Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok, however, said today that he was not aware of this but added that any interested party could buy Sime Darby shares in the open market.
Consumer products accounted for 68.264 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 161.580 million, construction 44.641 million, trade and services 312.156 million, technology 55.387 million, infrastructure 16.095 million, finance 39.074 million, hotels 2.242 million, properties 162.085 million, plantations 75.770 million, mining 3,000, REITs 1.576 million, and closed/fund 35,000. — Bernama
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