KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 5): The FBM KLCI closed just marginally higher by 0.01% or 0.19 points today, as investors turned cautious after a strong rally since Jan 7, where the index had since gained 94.03 points or 5.5% from 1,709.18.

During intraday trade, the benchmark index recorded losses in the early session and was only able to inch upwards in the eleventh hour, to finally settle at 1,803.21 points at 5pm.

Some 1.65 billion shares changed hands valued at RM2.09 billion.

In the broader market, 244 gainers fell behind the 433 decliners, while 326 counters were unchanged.

A seasoned remisier told theedgemarkets.com that KLCI witnessed a lethargic day after investors took to heavy profit taking particularly in the Ace Market.

“The KLCI was very quiet today because investors are taking profit after the index went up 21.76 points yesterday. This is obvious especially in the Ace Market counters where Asia Bioenergy Technologies Bhd (Asiabio) is an example- the counter has lost over 50% of its value in a period of a few days.”

“The index-linked counters, too, have been subdued and many retail buyers have been more cautious about trading today,” he said.

With the rally since Jan 7, the remisier said retailers would likely stay on the side lines and active trading will mostly be dominated by “traders and market makers”. He expects that this “quiet trend will continue to the end of the week.

Today’s top gainers included Nestle (M) Bhd which increased 1.24%, United Plantations Bhd which rose 2.38% and British American Tobacco (M) Bhd which was up 0.59%.

Among the top decliners were Negri Sembilan Oil Palms Bhd which fell 1.96%, Riverview Rubber Estates Bhd which lost 3.7% and Tahps Group Bhd which declined 2.26%.

The most actively traded stock was Asiabio. The counter saw over 63 million shares traded and closed at 16.5 sen, down 2 sen or 10.81%. The value of shares traded was RM10.85 million.

Apart from Asiabio, other “hot stocks” included Globaltec Formation Bhd (up 7.1% with 49.7 million shares traded), Kronologi Asia Bhd (up 11.9% with 22.9 million shares traded), and Pentamaster Corp Bhd (up 7.29% with 15.9 million shares traded).

Across Asia, Japan’s Nikkei lost 0.98% and South Korea’s Kospi declined 0.51% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.35%.