Kuala Lumpur shares close lower on Thai coup, Fed caution - UPDATE 20/9/2006
- Share prices closed lower as the military coup
in Thailand gave investors an excuse to lock in profits, dealers said.
They said the market is also waiting for the outcome of the US Federal
Reserve meeting tonight.
The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) closed down 3.20 points or 0.33
pct at 959.62.
The FTSE Bursa Malaysia 30-large cap index was down 25.36 points or 0.41
pct at 6,206.97 and the second board index lost 0.14 point or 0.17 pct at 83.
32.
Trading volume was 427.745 mln shares valued at 858.323 mln rgt.
Losers outnumbered gainers 408 to 248, with 343 stocks unchanged and 312
counters untraded.
Ngu Chie Kieng, head of business development and strategic planning at TA
Securities, said he believes the political instability in Thailand is going
to be only temporary.
At the same time, he said the Malaysian equity market may benefit from
the Thai turmoil as Malaysia will appear to be more stable and conducive for
investments.
Vincent Khoo, head of research at Hwang-DBS Vickers, said the seizure of
power by the Thai military will not trigger any re-rating on Malaysian
companies which have businesses in Thailand, at least for now.
A local fund manager said that "investors have been staying on the
sidelines mainly because the US Federal Reserve meeting tonight." He said the
market generally expects the Fed to keep its key rate steady at 5.25 pct
tonight.
Among key blue chips, Tenaga was higher as investors cheered the
state-owned firm's decision to scrap a share placement exercise. The stock
was up 0.20 rgt or 2.06 pct at 9.90.
Maybank was steady at 11.20 and Telekom Malaysia was unchanged at 9.05
rgt.
Casino operator Genting fell 0.70 rgt or 2.92 pct to 23.30 and Resorts
was down 0.30 rgt or 2.60 pct at 11.20.
Palm oil producer IOI Corp lost 0.50 rgt or 3.05 pct to 15.90 and its
property arm IOI Properties fell 0.25 rgt or 2.98 pct to 8.15.
National car maker proton fell 0.12 rgt or 2.41 pct to 4.86 and DRB-Hicom
was down 0.01 rgt at 1.41 after news that Malaysia's car sales fell 5.68 pct
year-on-year in August to 35,297 units.
Lion Forest Industries was sharply lower as profit-taking erased earlier
gains following news that the company is raising the ratio of its proposed
capital repayment to 2.00 rgt per share from 1.20 rgt. The stock ended down 0.
09 rgt or 2.96 pct at 2.95.
Malaysia Airlines was steady at 3.10 rgt after the national carrier said
there have been no disruptions in its flights to Bangkok and Phuket so far.
AirAsia was down 0.01 rgt or 0.64 pct at 1.55.
Gamuda was unchanged at 3.98 rgt despite the Thai coup. The construction
firm has recently won a power plant project in Thailand.
Amcorp Group was higher after major shareholder Azman Hashim made a
second attempt to take the company private. The stock was up 0.06 rgt or 4.69
pct at 1.34.
Speculative lower liners rebounded from yesterday's falls, with Iris Corp
rising 0.015 rgt or 7.14 pct to 0.225 and Mobif up 0.005 rgt or 0.97 pct at 0.
52.

For tomorow...buy if market fall down...

For CPO ...market will rebound back to 1560 points...

Regard

Anthony Wong