Asian markets up in early trade

Asian markets rose in early trade on Thursday, aided by the firmer close on Wall Street but the local stock market was basically lacklustre, with the benchmark KL Composite Index in the red, weighed down by TMI and Sime.

At 9.30am, the KLCI was down 0.95 point to 846.58. Turnover was 21.78 million shares done valued at RM27.81mil. There were 62 gainers, 43 losers while 79 stocks were unchanged.

Singapore’s Straits Times Index rose 20.15 points or 1.23% to 1,660.72, Shanghai’s A Share Index edged up 1.48% to 2,094.46 while the Nikkei 225 added 0.37% to 8,033.66.

Light crude oil fell to US$46.60 per barrel while the ringgit was quoted at RM3.6365 to the US dollar.

Wall Street withstood another stream of bad economic readings Wednesday, closing sharply higher after investors shuttled between pessimism about the recession and hopes that the nation might start seeing relief soon, news reports said.

The major indexes saw big swings throughout the day, but all closed up more than 2 percent, giving the market its second straight advance.

The Dow rose 172.60, or 2.05 percent, to 8,591.69. The blue chip index has gained more than 442 points in the past two session, wiping out more than half of Monday's slide.

HwangDBS Vickers Research said it expected the local stock market to repeat yesterday’s performance and it expected the KLCI to trade in a narrow range amidst a mixed market breadth and light trading volume. Immediate resistance barrier for the market barometer remains at 860 ahead.

“On the data front, it will likely be quiet too with just one key economic report due for release today – the external trade statistics for October,” it said.

The research house said the consensus was still anticipating a positive momentum for Malaysia based on a media survey, which has projected an annual growth of 7.4% for exports and 4.0% for imports, translating to a monthly trade surplus of RM11.4bil in October.

TMI was the top loser, easing 12 sen to RM3.48 while DiGi fell 10 sen to RM21.30. PPB and Sime fell five sen each to RM8.35 and RM5.10 while also down by five sen were YTL and Public Bank to RM6.70 and RM8.20.

Genting shed two sen to RM3.88 but Resorts rose two sen to RM2.30 in active trade.

BAT added 25 sen to RM45.50, Petronas Gas 10 sen to RM9.85 while HLFG gained eight sen to RM3.88, MAS gained seven sen to RM2.61 while KFCH, Tenaga and Maybank rose five sen each to RM7.30, RM5.95 and RM5.15 respectively.



Source : The Star