Business

Published: Tuesday July 24, 2012 MYT 5:29:00 PM

Markets close off day's low ahead of IHH listing

By Joseph Chin


KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips closed off their day's low on Tuesday, in line with the mixed regional markets, as buying interest picked up in the late afternoon.

Sentiment perked up ahead of the listing of IHH Healthcare on Wednesday. IHH is one of the world's largest healthcare providers with an estimated market capitalisation of RM22.6bil.

Meanwhile, European stocks pared their decline, after completing the biggest two-day drop in eight months on Monday, as technology companies advanced.

At Bursa Malaysia, the FBM KLCI closed down 3.6 points or 0.22% to 1,632.57, off the day's low of 1,629. Turnover was 845.75 million shares valued at RM1.51bil.

The broader market showed some mild profit taking but sentiment was seen to be still firm. There were 294 gainers, 413 losers and 351 stocks unchanged.

Among the key regional markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 was down 0.24% to 8,488.09; Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.79% to 18,903.20; Taiwan's Taiex shed 0.29% to 7,008.35.

However, Shanghai's Composite Index rose 0.24% to 2,146.59; South Korea's Kospi added 0.25% to 1,793.93 and Singapore's Straits Times Index gained 0.53% to 2,998.44.

US light crude oil rose 40 cents to US$88.54 and Brent 58 cents to US$103.84. Spot gold fell US$1.76 to US$1,574.99. The ringgit weakened against the US dollar to 3.1789.

Crude palm oil for third-month futures fell RM74 to RM2,916.

Among the plantation stocks, PPB fell 30 sen to RM15.20 and KLK 28 sen to RM23.70.

HLFG fell 10 sen to RM12.32, RHB Capital five sen to RM7.40 while among the telcos, Maxis shed nine sen to RM6.56 and Genting Malaysia four sen to RM3.46.

Nestle was the top loser, down 88 sen to RM59.02, Pharmaniaga 25 sen to RM9.52 and Hing Yap 13 sen to RM2.35.

Cybertowers was the most active with 47.79 million shares done, up 5.5 sen to 37.5 sen after the recent heavy selldown.

Tanjung Offshore rose 17.5 sen to 96.5 sen on its dividend plan while the warrants, WB jumped 12.5 sen to 21.5 sen.

BAT was the top gainer, up RM2.58 to RM61 while F&N managed to recover to add 22 sen to RM18.50. MMC Corp and HL Bank gained two sen each to RM2.52 and RM13.32.

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