KUALA LUMPUR (April 8): Plantation counters declined today amid profit-taking by investors following yesterday's rally.

At 4.20pm, most of the plantation counters saw declines, with Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd (KLK) down 52 sen or 2.5% at RM20.74 after 358,900 shares were exchanged, while Sime Darby Plantation Bhd was down 29 sen or 5.74% at RM4.76, with 4.2 million shares traded.

Other notable players that fell were Ta Ann Holdings Bhd (down 2.73%), IOI Corp Bhd (down 1.27%) and Hap Seng Plantations Holdings Bhd (down 2.94%).

The Bursa Malaysia Plantation Index stood at 6,191.91 points at the time of writing, down 2.52% from its previous close of 6,351.81. Year to date, the index has fallen 19.9%, underperforming the benchmark FBM KLCI, which has retreated 13.77% in the same period.

Public Invest Research analyst Chong Hoe Leong said the decline in the plantation counters was likely due to profit taking.

“Crude palm oil (CPO) futures are up and still holding strong. It seems that everything is still okay, so the decline today is likely due to profit-taking after the rally yesterday,” he told theedgemarkets.com.

He also noted that the trading volumes in the plantation counters today were not out of the ordinary, despite the declines.

Yesterday, KLK gained 2.9% to close at a one-month high of RM21.26, as Sime Darby Plantation gained 8.6% to close at RM5.05, while PPB Group gained 2.2% to settle at RM16.68.

According to data by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), CPO price stood at RM2,315 yesterday, up from RM2,250 a day earlier.

MPOB will be releasing its monthly palm oil data on Friday.