Bursa trading volume at 3.18b units, telcos advance?

KUALA LUMPUR:  Telecommunication players and big capitalised stocks advanced on Tuesday, Feb 8 on some mild buying interest by funds while plantations and penny stocks including HWGB fell on profit taking.

Volume was 3.18 billion shares valued at RM2.74 billion, but this was slightly below the 3.24 billion units done on Monday worth RM2.62 billion.  The FBM KLCI closed 0.26% or 3.95 points higher at 1,539.55 but off the day's best when it rose to 1,544.35.  The broader market displayed some resilience with gainers leading losers 506 to 379, while 257 counters were unchanged.

HWGB and its warrants, which fell in active trade, accounted for more than 115 million units transacted. HWGB fell 15.5 sen to 77.5 sen and HWGB-WB lost 15.5 sen to 74 sen as traders, as expected sold on news about its proposed tin mining operations.

Among the regional markets, Hong Kong stocks failed to sustain mild opening gains for a second session on Tuesday as property developers and local banks dipped while defensives such as telecoms outperformed, according to Reuters

Some market players said talk that inflation in China could rise to as much as 6% by March was fuelling concern among investors.

The Hang Seng Index slipped 0.29% to 23,484.30, South Korea's Kospi fell 0.58% to 2,069.70, Taiwan's Taiex lost 0.37% to 9,111.46 and Singapore's Straits Times Index shed 0.28% to 3,183.37. However, the Nikkei 225 edged up 0.41% to 10,635.98.

At Bursa Malaysia, telcos rose, with TM gaining 13 sen to RM3.85, Axiata nine sen to RM5.03, Maxis six sen to RM5.39 and DiGi up two sen to RM25.50.

Petronas Chemicals added seven sen to RM6.37, MISC nine sen to RM8.35, IOI Corp three sen to RM5.81, Public Bank four sen to RM13.50 while Sime Darby and Tenaga gained two sen each to RM9.35 and RM6.17.

Other gainers included F&N, MTD Capital, Tradewinds, Petronas Dagangan, Dayang, Hong Leong Industries, LPI Capital and HLFG.

Genting was among the major losers and fell 16 sen to RM10.74, shaving off 1.40 points of the index, while Nestle fell 62 sen to RM45.18.

Plantation-related stocks fell, with Far East and United Plantations fell 30 sen each to RM7.20 and RM16.40, BLD Plantations 16 sen to RM5.23, while KLK and Batu Kawan lost 14 sen each to RM22.56 and RM16.86.

Karambunai was the most actively traded stock with 225.1 million shares done. The counter shed half a sen to 26 sen.

Source: finance.yahoo.com

Posted in: Bursa Trading