Trade Shares or Stocks in Bursa Malaysia|How to start Trading | Trade Stocks in Bursa Malaysia | How to Open Trading Account | How to Open CDS Account | What is Collateralised Trading | Discretionary Financing | Share Margin Financing | CDS Share Transfer | Securities Borrowing and Lending (SBL) | Regulated Short Selling (RSS) | Brokerage | Internet Trading Brokerage Discount | Cash Upfront Brokerage Discount | Clearing Fees | Contract Stamp Duties | Bursa Malaysia | Composite Index | Bursa News | Listed Companies News | Market News | Market Outlook

Strong gains in plantation stocks amid the anticipation of higher crude palm oil prices helped to push the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) to a new two-year high.

On Monday, the CI hit 1,324.22, up 24.44 points from last Friday, and the highest since March 2008.

The FBM KLCI rallied to its new high of 1,328.22 today as sentiment was further supported by overnight gains on Wall Street.

Major contributors to today’s gains were Sime Darby, KL Kepong and IOI Corp.

Jupiter Securities Sdn Bhd’s head of research, Pong Teng Siew said the plantation index weightage was about 20 per cent of the FBM KLCI.

“Plantation stocks are likely to rise further as the outlook for the palm oil industry remains strong,” said Pong.

Crude palm oil (CPO) futures prices are trading above RM2,500 per tonne currently.

During the two-day Palm and Lauric Oil Price Outlook conference held recently, an analyst had said CPO futures were likely to trade between RM2,800 per and RM3,200 per tonne in the second half of this year and first-half of 2011.

From March to July, the commodity is expected to fetch between RM2,600 and RM2,800 per tonne as ample stocks would continue to keep prices in check, he said.

During this period, South America is also expected to off-load large soybean oil supplies into the market, he said.

He said the El Nino hot weather will also be a key driver for stronger CPO prices as it is expected to see a reduced production.

Meanwhile, another analyst said the local stock market would continue to do well with the global economy returning to recovery mode, and this will further boost the level of investor confidence.

Related Posts:

• FBMKLCI highest in 2years
• FBMKLCI – Nestle in and Parkson out
• FBMKLCI replaces KLCI

Bursa Malaysia plans to trade metal and add new specifications for crude palm oil (CPO) on Bursa Suq Al-Sila’ this year, as volume was expected to see a huge growth on local and foreign interests.

Raja Teh Maimunah Raja Abdul Aziz, Bursa Malaysia’s global head of Islamic Markets, did not discount the possibility the daily trading volume of Bursa Suq Al-Sila’ would triple or quadruple this year due to increasing number of local and foreign banks participation especially from Gulf Cooperation Council.

“We continue to see an increasing trend as volume in February, a shorter trading month, has exceeded January’s,” she told reporters at the second day of Palm and Lauric Oils Conference and Exhibition: Price Outlook 2010/2011 here today.

Raja Teh Maimunah said almost 90 per cent of domestic banks traded on Bursa Al-Sila’ including three global banks.

“I’m not still at liberty to tell you the daily trade, but you would be able to figure out by looking at Islamic banking assets in the country,” she said.

Launched in August last year, Bursa Suq Al Sila’ is a purposefully-designed exchange-traded platform to facilitate commodity murabahah transactions.

It is the first Internet-based platform in the world with CPO as its underlying base commodity.

“We are working on metal and other specifications of CPO. It has various specifications and Bursa Suq Al-Sila now only has one,” she said, when asked on the specification to be traded.

She said the different specifications would be introduced in stages.

On the reason to introduce metal trading, Raja Teh Maimunah said the exchange was working with commodity suppliers who had the necessary volume and accessibility for such an undertaking.

“Players of metal commodity are familiar with murabahah and the potential is huge,” she said

Related Posts:

• Bursa post 4th quarter profit
• Bursa reprimand errant companies
• Bursa’s Direct Market Access
• Is Bursa having a bull run?
• Bursa KLCI breached the 1,000 mark

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) punched past the 1,300-point mark in morning trade to its highest level in two years with active trade in blue chips.

The benchmark index surged 22.33 points, or 1.72%, to 1,322.11 points at 12.30pm on continued buying interest in blue chips counters and selected lower liners. A total of 689.2 million shares were done. Advancers thumped decliners 501 to 167 while 238 counters were traded unchanged.

Public Bank Bhd-Foreign, which topped the gainers’ list, jumped 66 sen to RM11.94. Public Bank Bhd rose 60 sen to RM11.92 while CIMB Group advanced 40 sen to RM14.12.

Kek Seng (M) Bhd added 49 sen to RM4.71, Maybank put on 13 sen to RM7.53 and Bursa Malaysia Bhd rose 27 sen to RM7.68.

Earlier, Bursa Malaysia issued AE Multi Holdings Bhd with an unusual market activity query on the trading of its shares. AE Multi jumped 13sen to 87 sen on a heavy volume of 30.9 million shares.

The magnitude of the FBM KLCI’s rise is not uncommon among Asian countries. The Hang Seng Index was up 1.92% at 21,186.09, the Straits Times Index rose 35.33 points to 2,825.62 points, the Nikkei 225 increased 190 points to 10,558.96 points and the Jakarta Composite Index advanced 29.50 points to 2,608.28 points.

CIMB Equities Research said if the FBM KLCI could take out the 1,300 psychological level convincingly on stronger volume, then the index could take out the January high of 1,308 level soon.

“The next resistance is at 1,320 to1,324. However, failure to take out the 1,300 level would likely bring in another round of profit taking,” it said, adding that support was seen at 1,282 and 1,266.

“Bulls should also note that this current rally has been on weak volume, suggesting that there is a possibility of a double top pattern forming here,” CIMB said.

“If all goes well, we will see the benchmark FBM KLCI breaking past the psychological mark of 1,300 today, possibly surpassing its previous post-March 2009 recovery high of 1,308.52 (achieved on Jan 21),” according to HwangDBS Vickers Research.

The research house said giving sentiment an initial boost was last Friday’s strong performance on Wall Street.

Major US equity indices jumped between 1.2% and 1.5% at the closing bell on improving economic outlook and rising corporate activity.

“Back home, investors’ mood may be lifted too by the January external trade report released after market hours on Friday, which saw a big jump in exports and imports from a year ago.

“Separately, they will also be interested in a high profile forum – Palm and Lauric Oils conference starting today until Wednesday – where industry experts will talk about their crude palm oil (CPO) price forecasts as well as supply-demand outlook,” HwangDBS said.

Related Posts:

• FBMKLCI – Nestle in and Parkson out
• FBMKLCI replaces KLCI