Bursa starts 2014 on soft note

Bursa Malaysia, which ended the volatile 2013 as the best performer among the top four regional stock exchanges, failed to sustain the momentum on the first trading day of the new year yesterday, closing one per cent lower as investors took profit after windowdressing activities last month.

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) lost 14 points, or 0.95 per cent, to close at 1,852.95.

Reuters reported that Asian share markets endured mixed fortunes yesterday in the wake of disappointing data on Chinese manufacturing, while investors showed renewed appetite for commodities as the new year got under way.

Among the Southeast Asian markets, Thai stocks fell to their lowest in almost 16 months yesterday as anti-government protests intensified, while shares in the Philippines and Indonesia
rallied on their first trading day of the year.


On the last trading day of 2013, the FBM KLCI closed at 1,866.96, which was 192.24 points higher than the 1,674.72 closing on January 2 last year.

It ended at a historical high of 1,872.52 on Monday.

Yesterday, actively-traded stocks included Compugates Holdings Bhd, 1 Utopia Bhd, The Media Shoppe Bhd, Hubline Bhd and Malaysia
Building Society Bhd.

Top gainers were UMW Holdings Bhd, which gained 34 sen to RM12.40, PPB Group Bhd (added 12 sen to RM16.26), RHB Capital Bhd
(increased nine sen to RM7.99), AMMB Holdings Bhd (surged eight sen to RM7.32) and Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (rose six sen to RM4.55).

Top losers were Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd, which dived 58 sen to RM24.32, Petronas Gas (lost 46 sen to RM23.82), Petronas Dagangan
(dipped 46 sen to RM30.98) and Public Bank (shaved 32 sen to RM19.08).

-btimes.com.my/