KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 6): The Malaysia stocks market bucked the key regional markets' trend and closed in the green territory for two consecutive days.
At 5pm, the FBMKLCI inched up 2.27 points or 0.13% to settle at 1,667.97 points. Analysts said the gain in key index could be due to better performance of selected plantation counters and export-oriented counters.
The rise in share prices of Genting Bhd, Malaysian Pacific Industries Bhd (MPI), Supermax Corp Bhd, Hong Leong Financial Group Bhd and Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd also supported the gain in the benchmark index.
"There is still a good bargain hunting (in the market), following the sharp fall in the first trading (day) of the year," Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd's technical analyst Loui Low told theedgemarkets.com over the phone.
"Interest picking up in plantation counters and export-oriented counters also helped to lift the index into the positive zone," he added.
Nevertheless, Low said that the market is generally still weak and lacking of catalyst that could support the overall market. Hence, he expects the FBMKLCI to hover between 1,700 and 1,730 level.
Across Bursa Malaysia, a total of 2.43 billion shares, valued RM2.32 billion, exchanged hands today.
Market sentiment is also positive, with gainers outnumbering losers by 595 to 321; while 324 counters were unchanged.
Petron Malaysia Refining & Marketing Bhd led gainers, while British American Tobacco (Malaysia) Bhd was the top loser.
Instacom Group Bhd was the most actively-traded stock, with a trading volume of 174.63 million shares.
In commodities, crude oil prices were heading south as concerns over growing supply and rising stock levels, outweighed tensions between key Middle East producers.
At the point of writing, internationally-traded Brent Crude index fell 4.06% to US$35.71 per barrel, while US Crude was down 1.2% to US$35.54 per barrel.
According to Reuters, China's move to allow the yuan to weaken further, has accelerated the fall in the offshore yuan, dragging down other emerging currencies like the ringgit and Thai baht.
The ringgit gave up yesterday's (Tuesday's) gain and lost 1.26% against the US dollar today, to quote at 4.3975, as compared to yesterday's closing of 4.3428.
Key regional indexes were all slipped into the red zone today, on China worry and growing geopolitical tensions.
Japan's Nikkei 225 led losers by closing 0.99% lower, followed by Hong Kong Hang Seng Index's 0.98% decline and South Korea's Kospi 0.26% lost.
Reuters reported Asian shares fell on Wednesday and most emerging currencies retreated, as China allowed the yuan to weaken further, stoking fears about its slowing economy, while a North Korean nuclear test heightened geopolitical tensions.
(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)