Kuala Lumpur shares close lower on profit-taking ahead of Sept CPI - UPDATE 17/10/2006
- Share prices closed lower on extended
profit-taking after last week's gains and ahead of the release of Malaysia's
September inflation data tomorrow, dealers said.
They said the current consolidation mode is likely to continue for the
rest of the week ahead of the long festive holidays from this weekend,
although the long-term outlook remains good.
The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) closed down 6.56 points or 0.67
pct at 977.23.
The FTSE Bursa Malaysia 30-large cap index slipped 49.21 points or 0.77
pct to 6,325.19 while the second board index eased 0.55 of a point or 0.65
pct to 84.53.
Losers outnumbered gainers 496 to 227, with 318 stocks unchanged and 277
counters untraded.
Trading volume was 566.54 mln shares valued at 819.05 mln rgt.
TA Securities' technical analyst Stephen Soo predicted earlier in the day
that profit-taking would persist in the afternoon trade, as the market had
been "overly bullish over the last two days on Wall Street's good performance.
"
Bursa Malaysia rallied late last week with a 0.52 pct rise on Thursday
and a further 0.81 pct on Friday in line with regional gains triggered by
Wall Street's record-close overnight, and on hopes of more favorable
corporate earnings results following Tenaga Nasional's strong full-year to
August results.
The market has also taken some precaution ahead of tomorrow's CPI
figures, although economists are expecting only a 3.3 pct rise in consumer
price index (CPI), which matches the August reading.
The Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER), a government think
tank, said inflation may have peaked at 4.8 pct in March after it hit a
six-month low of 3.3 pct in August. EON Capital Securities research manager
for charts Lee Cheng Hooi said that despite the market's current
consolidation mode, he remains optimistic about the outlook for local
equities.
"We expect the market to trend higher toward the end of the year," Lee
said, adding that the benchmark KLCI is expected to trade between 973-980
points in the near term.
The chartist said the his house has a year-end target of 995-1012 points
for the KLCI.
Among heavyweight stocks, Tenaga was down on profit-taking, falling 0.20
rgt to 9.90 and Maybank fell 0.20 rgt to 11.30. Telekom Malaysia was steady
at 9.10 rgt.
Gaming groups such as Genting lost 0.50 rgt to 26.25 and Tanjong PLC was
down 0.40 rgt at 12.50. Tanjong said yesterday its Russian partner Yuvenga
JSC has temporarily suspended its Moscow Olympic Lottery draws, pending a
review by its shareholders.
Public Bank was lower ahead of its third quarter to Sept results, down 0.
10 rgt at 6.65. The banking group said it posted a net profit of 432.41 mln
rgt, compared with 347.86 mln a year earlier.
New listings StemLife and Swee Joo were sharply higher, with
Mesdaq-listed StemLife gaining 0.42 rgt or 127.27 pct to 0.75 and shipping
Swee Joo was up 0.105 rgt or 15 pct at 0.805.

For tomorrow...market may rebound...

For CPO market...correction must occur to 1500 levels...

Regard

Anthony Wong