Business

Published: Thursday May 17, 2012 MYT 6:23:00 PM
Updated: Thursday May 17, 2012 MYT 6:58:12 PM

KLCI snaps losing streak but SapuraKencana disappoints

By Joseph Chin


KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips snapped their losing streak on Thursday, but managed to recoup only one-third of their losses from the previous day, as investors worried about the deepening turmoil in Greece and fears of contagion spreading.

At the close, the FBM KLCI was up 8.17 points or 0.53% to 1,544.21, but off the intra-day high of 1,552. Turnover was 1.28 billion shares valued at RM1.93bil. Advancing counters beat decliners 472 to 279 while 327 counters were unchanged.

Reuters reported that Malaysia saw US$62mil in foreign inflows on Thursday after US$57mil in outflows in the previous session.

However, SapuraKencana Petroleum, which made its debut following a RM11.85bil merger deal, disappointed. It fell 14 sen to RM2.10 from its reference price of RM2.24. It was the most active with 205.57 million shares done.

Among the key regional markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.86% to 8,876.59 and Shanghai's Composite Index advanced 1.4%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 0.31% to 19,200.93, reversing midday gains as losses in the financial sector deepened in the afternoon after European markets opened lower. Singapore's Straits Times Index fell 0.3% to 2,822.61.

Reuters reported a Greek exit from the euro zone could expose the European Central Bank and the currency bloc it seeks to protect to hundreds of billions of euros in losses, landing Germany and its partners with a crippling bill.

A Greek departure would take Europe into uncharted legal waters. The size of the burden other euro zone states could bear gives them a powerful incentive to keep Greece in the currency club.

It also reported Spain officially slipped in to recession in the first quarter, final figures confirmed on Thursday. In the first quarter, the economy shrank 0.3% in the compared with the last quarter of 2011, and was down 0.4% year on year, the National Statistics Institute said on Thursday, its sharpest annual fall since the first quarter of 2010.

Among the commodities, US light crude oil rose 30 cents to US$93.11 while crude palm oil futures for third-month delivery rose RM17 to RM3,102. The ringgit managed to strengthen against the US dollar to 3.1105.

At Bursa Malaysia, Tenaga rose 12 sen to RM6.29, pushing the KLCI up 1.53 points. CIMB;s seven sen gain to RM7.25, adding 1.23 points.

KrisAssets was the top gainer, up 40 sen to RM7.90, Takaful 32 sen to RM4.90 while HL Bank gained 24 sen to RM12.22.

BHIC managed to climb 22 sen to RM2.99 despite posting net loss of RM14.51mil in the first quarter ended March 31, 2012 compared with net profit of RM10.07mil a year ago.

MISC rose 16 sen to RM4.10. CIMB Equities Research said that despite MISC's first quarter core core net loss shocker, it thinks that earnings have bottomed.

The research house said it expected MISC to see group profits recover slowly as tanker and liner losses narrow.

AsiaEP fell two sen to 3.5 sen and its warrants, AsiaEP-WB fell two sen to 1.5 sen in very active trade after it was classified as a Guidance Note 3 company.

Tradewinds was the top loser, down 53 sen to RM8.97. Tradewinds Plantations fell 35 sen to RM5.07 following sharply lower earnings.

Also down were United Plantations by 30 sen to RM24.20, F&B 12 sen to RM18.46 and Parkson 11 sen to RM4.74 while KLK gave up 10 sen to RM22.16.

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