Posted on 18 Feb 2010
Asian markets continue its positive performance at midday as global economic news spurs optimism in investors. Among the news highlights today are UK jobless was reported to be declining, the US manufacturing accelerated, Greece do not need European Unian bailouts and improved earnings at Barclays Plc. The FBM KLCI was at 1,263.87 up 10.48 points with turnover was at 262.06 million shares valued at RM405.1mil. Among heavyweights, Tenaga surged three sen to RM8, Sime Darby rose 10 sen to RM8.50, Maybank increased by two sen to RM6.92 and CIMB Group advanced 14 sen to RM12.56. According to HWANGDBS Vickers Research, over the two-day Lunar New Year break, Asian bourses staged a mixed performance, with Indonesia gained 1.0% and Philippine gained 0.6% ending stronger while Thailand shed 0.8% and Japan was down by 0.6% were weaker. “Still, investment sentiment could receive a boost today (Feb 17) as major US equity bellwethers on Wall Street (which was closed on Monday) climbed between 1.7% and 1.8% last night,” it said. It added that share prices on Malaysian stock exchange would also want to make a positive start amid thin trading interest. “But we reckon its benchmark FBM KLCI will probably struggle to go past the immediate resistance barrier of 1,255 for the time being before resuming its uptrend subsequently,” it said. The Straits Times Index in Singapore rose by 30.32 points or 1.10% to 2,789.22 while Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gained 255.18 points or 2.54% to 10, 289.43.
