Financial News - 19th Nov 2010

Kuala Lumpur Composite Index

Stocks on Bursa Malaysia fell 0.46% to close at 1496.65 points on continuous selling pressure. The Finance Index lost 52.24 points to 13664.38 points, the Properties Index added 2.58 points to 987.30 points and the Plantation Index eased 17.36 points to 7725.06 points.

The market traded within a range of 13.13 points between an intra-day high of 1500.34 and a low of 1487.21 during the session. Actively traded stocks include JOTECH, SAAG, KBUNAI, TIMECOM, KNM, IJMLAND-WA, IJMLAND, TIGER, SCOMI, and JCY.

Trading volume declined to 1123.90 mil shares worth RM1737.08 mil as compared to Tuesday's 1325.30 mil shares worth RM1735.73 mil.


Market Thoughts

US stocks ended higher on i) talk that Ireland will accept financial aid and ii) a strong debut by General Motors' share. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 173.35 points, or 1.57 percent, to close at 11,181.23. The
Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 18.10 points, or 1.54 percent, to 1,196.69. The Nasdaq Composite Index surged 38.39 points, or 1.55 percent, to 2,514.40.


On the back of the positive sentiment in the US and Europe, we believe the FBM KLCI will trade with a positive bias today.



Futures Kuala Lumpur Index

FKLI were traded higher in Thursday morning. Spot-month contracts rose 0.50 points to 1489.50. At midday, the spot-month FKLI futures increased 0.50 points to close at 1489.50 points.

At the close, the FKLI ended higher with the spot-month FKLI contract rose 6.50 points to close at 1495.50 points. Turnover was lower at 6761 lots compared to 7449 lots in the previous trading day.

Open interests slipped to 21356 contracts from 22594 contracts previously. The underlying FBM KLCI index dropped 6.89 points to 1496.65 at the close.


Futures Crude Palm Oil

FCPO benchmark of Feb11 contract opened at RM3190 per ton on Thursday. At the close of Thursday, Dec10 contract added RM64.00, Jan11 contract gained RM63.00, Feb11 contract moved up RM53.00, and Mar11 contract increased RM51.00.

Volume rose to 41,879 lots from 27,757 lots a day ago, while open interests increased to 77,197 contracts from 74,871 contracts previously.
(Source: JF Apex Securities Bhd)