Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR: Asian markets, including the FBM KLCI stayed in negative territory at midday Friday, May 7 although most managed to narrow losses from early trade as investors dumped shares after the overnight plunge at Wall Street and on concerns of a European debt crisis.

Japan's Nikkei 225 which had fallen more than 4.1% earlier, somewhat recovered and was down 2.54% to 10,424.18 at noon; South Korea's Kospi fell 1.7% to 1,656.02, Singapore's Straits Times Index fell 0.85% to 2,815.41, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index down 0.71% to 19,990.83, the Shanghai Composite Index down 0.69% to 2,720.76 while the Taiwan TAIEX Index shed 0.09% to 7,572.79.

At Bursa Malaysia, the FBM KLCI fell 6.96 points to 1,324.91. Losers thumped gainers 552 to 93, while 193 counters traded unchanged. Trading volume was 508.6 million shares valued at RM904.43 million.

Crude palm oil futures for the third month delivery fell RM32 per tonne to RM2,493 while crude oil added 26 cents per barrel to US$77.36.

Panasonic was the top loser at midday, falling 40 sen to RM16.50, while Lysaght lost 32 sen to RM1.43.

PPB fell 18 sen to RM17.36, QSR and Kossan fell 16 sen each to RM3.24 and RM7.34, and Ta Ann lost 15 sen to RM5.12.

Meanwhile, CIMB fell 14 sen to RM14.08, MBM Resources down 12 sen to RM2.37 and Fima Corp fell 11 sen to RM4.37.

Top Glove reversed its losses from earlier in the day and was the top gainer at noon, adding 28 sen to RM11.88.

F&N gained 18 sen to RM10.90 after MIDF Research upgraded the stock to a buy with a higher target price of RM12 (from RM10.60) and said the company's 1HFY10 net profit grew 56.4% year-on-year to RM162.9 million, accounting for 69% and 60% of MIDF's and consensus full year numbers.

UMW added 10 sen to RM6.30, Goldis was up 8 sen to RM1.38, Berjaya Corp rose 7 sen to RM1.56, Ho Hup added 6.5 sen to 49 sen while KKB added 6 sen to RM5.78.

Talam was the most actively traded stock with 39.8 million shares done. The counter gained half a sen to 14 sen. Other actives included Berjaya Corp, KNM, Maxbiz, Tenaga and Unisem.

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