Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 31): The FBM KLCI lost 0.63 point to close at 1,692.51, on profit taking on the final trading day of the year.

Analysts said there had been profit-taking in the KLCI for the past few days, but the trend was more pronounced today, to take advantage of the index's recent gains.

Year-to-date (YTD), the KLCI was 3.9% lower. The KLCI's YTD loss is compared to Japan's Nikkei 225's 9% gain and Hong Kong's Hang Seng's 7% drop.

In Malaysia, the KLCI rose to its intra-day high at 1,697.43 points earlier today. Yesterday (Dec 30), the index climbed 7.78 points.

Today, Etiqa Insurance & Takaful head of research Chris Eng told theedgemarkets.com that while it had often been perceived that the KLCI would stage a positive close on the last trading day of the year, the result was actually mixed, over the past 10 years.

“However, since the KLCI has yet to reach the 1,740-point level, there is a possibility that it could go higher," Eng said over telephone today.

He said state-owned investment fund ValueCap Sdn Bhd's planned RM20 billion investment in Malaysian shares, would be enough to support the market.

Valuecap is equally-owned by Khazanah Nasional Bhd, Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan) and Permodalan Nasional Bhd.

Across Bursa Malaysia, there were 1.35 billion shares, valued at RM1.33 billion, traded. Decliners outnumbered gainers at 419 and 409 respectively.

Kim Teck Cheong Consolidated Bhd was the most actively-traded stock.

The biggest gainers included PIE Industrial Bhd and Enra Group Bhd.

The largest decliners included Petronas Dagangan Bhd and Panasonic Manufacturing Malaysia Bhd.

(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.)

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