KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 31): The FBM KLCI regained some lost footing at the midday break on Wednesday, the final trading day of 2014, but the local index remained down almost 5% year-to-date.
At 12.30pm, the index rose 1.80 points to 1,768.63. Year-to-date, the index is down 98.33 points.
The top gainers in the morning session included Danainfra Nasional Bhd, British American Tobacco (M) Bhd, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd, Perduren (M) Bhd, PPB Group Bhd, Public Bank Bhd, Genting Plantations Bhd and Southern Steel Bhd.
Malayan United Industries Bhd was the most actively traded counter with 40.44 million shares done. The stock rose 8.62% or 2.5 sen to 31.5 sen.
The other actives included Berjaya Corporation Bhd, Minetech Resources Bhd, Kronologi Asia Bhd, JobStreet Corporation Bhd, Hubline Bhd, Technodex Bhd and Malayan Banking Bhd.
The top losers included Tasek Corporation Bhd, Petronas Gas Bhd, Petronas Dagangan Bhd, Apollo Food Holdings Bhd, Malaysia Smelting Corporation Bhd and Affin Holdings Bhd.
Chinese stocks were celebrating their best year in five on Wednesday while markets elsewhere in Asia were ending 2014 on a cautionary note as worries about Greece's future in the euro zone served as an excuse to take profits on crowded trades, according to Reuters.
The U.S. dollar lost a little of its recent gains, but the euro got no respite as European bonds yields scored all-time lows following a shockingly sharp fall in Spanish inflation, it said.
The stand-out global equity performer was China, where the CSI300 index of the largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen looked set to end 2014 with gains of nearly 50 percent, the biggest among the world's major markets, said Reuters.
AffinHwang Capital Research anticipates the FBM KLCI and stock prices in Bursa Malaysia as a whole to firm up with some upward biases due to year-end “window dressing” activities.
“However, volatility in the market is anticipated to surge, hence pullbacks during trading days or during the weeks are bound to occur.
“Buy on weakness. FBM KLCI’s intraday Support 1740 -1730, Resistance:1790 -1800,” it said.