KUALA LUMPUR: Stock prices on Bursa Malaysia fell as profit-taking activities set in after recent gains.
The KLCI had largely bucked the regional trend – chalking up good gains in the past week or so. Some of those gains had come towards the end of trading. Thus, some profit-taking activities were to be expected, more so as the KLCI neared the 1,300-point psychological level, and with broader market conditions and trading volume staying weak.
Taking its cue from an overnight rally on Wall Street – and helped by a fall in crude oil prices, the KLCI rose modestly at the start of trading, gaining as much as four points. However, it fell into negative territory from the mid-morning onwards and closed 6.6 points lower at 1,286.5 points.
Market breadth was negative throughout the day, but evened out at the close. Trading volume stayed thin with just 525 million shares changing hands.
The day's most actively traded stocks were PECD, AirAsia, JAKS, KHSB, Golden Plus and Maybank. Steel and building materials stocks continued their rally, due to the recent strong results by steel companies such as Southern Steel and Ann Joo, as well as the government's decision to liberalise steel prices.
Top gainers of the day include Southern Steel, Nestlé, Hume Industries, BAT, Astro and Ann Joo. DiGi was the biggest loser of the day, followed by YTL Power was the day's top loser, which fell after trading ex today for a 1-for-3 issue of 2.2 billion warrants priced at a deep discount to the market. Other losers include MPI, Parkson, Public Bank-foreign, Kulim and IOI Corp.
The local market will continue to take its leads from Wall Street as well as the upcoming local corporate earnings season, which should see more results reported in the next two weeks.
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