Business

Published: Tuesday November 10, 2009 MYT 2:46:00 PM

Asian markets were up at midday

By Laalitha Hunt


KUALA LUMPUR: Asian markets continued to rise at midday Tuesday and region’s currencies gained as Chinese car sales and home prices jumped.

Meanwhile, exports improved in Taiwan and Philippines.

According to Bloomberg, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 0.8% to 118.44 at midday, the highest closing level since Oct 26.

“Risk appetite has come back and there’s still cash waiting to be invested. We are still overweight on equities as an asset class given we’re still in the first 12 months after the bottom in equities and interest rates remain low,” said Manpreet Gill, Singapore-based strategist for Asia at Barclays Wealth, which has US$223bil in assets

At home, the benchmark KLCI was 0.65% higher at 1,275.94 while Singapore’s Straits Times Index added 0.69% to 2,711.97.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 advanced 0.63% to 9,870.73, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.85% to 22,395.46, Shanghai’s A share index rose 0.48% to 3,190.83 and Seoul’s Kospi Index was 0.31% higher at 1,581.75.

At Bursa Malaysia, 332 counters were up, 255 were down while 270 others were traded unchanged. There were 667.07 million shares done with a total value of RM682.98mil.

Gainers included CIMB, which rose 34 sen to RM12.98, Mamee climbed 19 sen to RM3.76, KL Kepong advanced 18 sen to RM15.28, Panasonic added 16 sen to RM12.36 and PPB was 16 sen higher at RM15.72.

Loh & Loh lost 16 sen to RM4.40, Digi dropped 14 sen to RM21.86 and BAT fell 10 sen to RM45.98.

Crude palm oil was up RM4 to RM2,270 per tonne.

Nymex crude oil in electronic trade fell 45 cents to US$78.98 per barrel.

The ringgit was quoted at 3.3835 to the US dollar.

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