KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 20 — Share prices ended mixed today with gains seen on mining and plantation stocks due to strong commodities prices amid increasing demand, dealers said.
Follow-through buying on key heavyweights also helped push the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) to 1,265.74, up 0.337 per cent or by 4.25 points, recording another fresh one year high.
It had opened 1.61 points higher at 1,264.61 this morning, and moved between 1,264.48 and 1,270.08 throughout the trading session.
Among the active plantation stocks, KLK and IOI Corp increased 20 sen and eight sen each to RM15.00 and RM5.54 respectively, supporting the market high.
This came amid higher crude oil price which has gone up 1.38 per cent or US$1.08 to US$79.61 per barrel on the back of a weaker greenback.
The dealers said positive regional bourses coupled with signs of a global economic recovery and overnight gains on Wall Street as well as the expansion in the banking sector continued to drive buying sentiment in the local bourse.
Apple Inc, the iPhone maker’s quarterly results which had surpassed earlier projections, lifted the US stocks higher.
The Dow Jones rose 96.28 points to 10,092.19, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index added 10.23 to 1,097.91 and the Nasdaq rose 19.52 to 2,176.32.
Locally, RHB Capital’s purchase of an 80 percent stake in Indonesia’s Bank Mestika Dharma for RM1.16 billion boosted market sentiment.
The local bourse was also boosted by active trading interest in mid-cap and low-priced counters amid expectations of better than expected corporate earnings from the US, dealers said.
“Investors are turning to the US corporate earnings this week, as major companies line up to issue their latest quarterly results,” one of the dealers said, adding that persistent mid-cap buying kept the market firm, sustaining the 1,250 point level despite some profit taking.
At today’s closing, the FBM Emas Index rose 27.13 points to 8,513.49, the FBM Top 100 increased 29.62 points to 8,299.57, the FBM 70 gained 36.9 points to 8,404.99 but the FBM ACE Index declined 44.4 points to 4,389.87.
The Finance Index added 81.08 points to 10,740.68, the Plantation Index climbed 70.68 points to 6,215.22 and the Industrial Index went down 0.46 points to 2,682.33.
Losers outpaced gainers by 419 to 329 while 243 counters were unchanged and 304 untraded.
Total turnover meanwhile decreased to 1.236 billion shares worth RM1.545 billion from 1.334 billion shares valued at RM1.267 billion yesterday.
At close, the most active stock was Metronic Global which closed three sen lower at 12.5 sen after moving between 11.5 sen and 16 sen during trading with 959,515 lots changing hands.
Other active stocks were KNM which was flat at 86 sen, Iris which added one sen to 17 sen and Asiaep which lost half sen to 8.5 sen.
Among the heavyweights, Sime Darby went up two sen to RM8.79, Maybank advanced five sen to RM6.98, CIMB gained 10 sen to RM12.62 and Tenaga Nasional lost one sen to RM8.51.
The Main Market turnover declined to 1.067 billion shares worth RM1.514 billion from 1.131 billion shares valued at RM1.229 billion yesterday.
The ACE Market volume decreased to 140.274 million shares valued at RM22.82 million from 177.340 million shares worth RM31.685 million shares previously.
Turnover for warrants went up to 21.307 million shares valued at RM5.944 million from 17.151 million shares worth RM4.545 million yesterday.
Consumer products accounted for 80.468 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 255.306 million, construction 47.998 million, trade and services 303.885 million, technology 128.302 million, infrastructure 34.324 million, finance 93.265 million, hotels 3.182 million, properties 94.549 million, plantations 24.528 million, mining 24,000, REITs 1.076, and closed/fund 58,000. — Bernama
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