Market Commentary

03 February 2009

The Stocks in Bursa Malaysia ended 1.29 points higher to settle at 884.45 points in a lackluster trading on Friday despite overnight losses on Wall Street. The benchmark KLCI index opened slightly lower on a negative lead from Wall Street overnight and later lost 11.63 points to reach an intra-day low of 871.53 points in the morning session as investors were bracing for more bad news on the economic front, especially from the US economy.

However, some mild bargain-hunting among key heavyweights helped narrow overall losses and eventually reversed from earlier losses to close marginally higher as investors treaded between profit-taking, continued caution and mild optimism. Overall, the broader market sentiment was still fragile, with investors wary of falling company profits and the recent bout of heavy job cuts around the globe. The poor sentiment made most investors remained sidelined until there is greater clarity on when a recovery might be expected.

Trading was very thin as many investors still away for the Chinese New Year holidays with turnover increased to 295.47 million shares valued at RM462.01 million from Thursday's 286.65 million shares worth RM415.29 million. Leading Movers were MISC (+30 sen to RM8.85), IOI CORP (+8 sen and RM3.92) and COMMERZ (+10 sen to RM6.40). Lagging Movers were TENAGA (-10 sen to RM5.90), TMI (-10 sen to RM3.18) and MAYBANK (-5 sen to RM5.25). Market Breath was mixed with 202 advancers as compared to 201 decliners.

Source: JF Apex Securities Bhd