Business

Published: Wednesday August 8, 2012 MYT 12:47:00 PM

Firmer export data lifts KLCI

By Joseph Chin


KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips staged a mild rebound on Wednesday, with BAT and Petronas-linked stocks among the gainers while the stronger-than-expected exports data for June glavanised sentiment.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 4.97 points to 1,636.09. Turnover was 556.01 million shares valued at RM610.54mil. There were 267 gainers, 307 losers and 299 counters unchanged.

Regional markets were mostly higher as speculation that central banks would take steps to spur growth and better-than-forecast US corporate earnings boosted the outlook for the economy, according to Bloomberg.

Malaysia's exports increased by 5.4% to RM60.97bil in June from a year ago, which was above expectations, economists said. Expectations were a growth of 3.2%.

BAT was the top gainer, up RM1.26 to RM60.46, recouping most of Tuesday's late sell-off. Petronas Dagangan added 28 sen to RM22.02 and Petronas Gas 10 sen to RM19.10.

United Plantations added 50 sen to RM27.50, UMCCA 19 sen to RM7.82 and SPB 11 sen to RM3.55. Carlsberg rose 20 sen to RM12.74 and Nestle 18 sen to RM60.68.

IHH was among the most active stocks with 22.76 million shares done, slipping six sen to RM3.19.

F&N fell 40 sen to RM19.94 after it reported a weaker set of third quarter earnings for the period ended June 30. AmResearch said it maintained its HOLD recommendation on F&N, with an unchanged discounted cashflow-based fair value of RM18.10 a share.

BHIC fell 12 sen to RM2.55 . It posted pre-tax losses of RM16.43mil in the second quarter compared with a pre-tax profit of RM2.74mil a year ago.

Tradewinds Plantations fell 11 sen to RM4.41 and Tradewinds nine sen to RM8.44.

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