Is Bursa having a bull run?
Filed Under (Bursa News, Other News) by Webmaster on 08-05-2009
Tagged Under : Bursa Malaysia, high volume
The KL Composite Index (KLCI) experienced its third busiest trading session in history yesterday with some 3.357 billion shares changing hands in a market where penny stocks clearly dominated trade.
The last time volumes were higher was in February 2007 when total transactions hit 4.7 billion shares on two separate days.
Penny stocks such as SAAG Consolidated Bhd, PDZ Holdings Bhd and Iris Corp Bhd crossed the one million-unit mark.
But brisk trading was not enough to push the KLCI higher as the absence of major moves by key blue-chips led the benchmark index to close a fraction lower by 0.49 point in a day where Asian markets continued to rally.
At the close, the KLCI was down 0.05% to 1,023.47 points. Turnover was valued at RM2.42bil.
“At this juncture, the local market is grossly overbought and a breather is needed before a more meaningful rally can happen,” TA Securities head of research Kaladher Govindan said.
The key index has advanced more than 20% from its recent bottom of 836.51 on March 12.
First quarter corporate results, due to be released this month, could also spook investors, Kaladher said.
He is looking at the market taking a pause at three different levels with the first at 980 points materialising possibly in the next two weeks.
Meanwhile, Asian stocks continued their bullish run, jumping to seven-month highs on better-than expected US and Australian job reports. US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner also gave assurance that none of the country’s biggest banks was insolvent, ahead of the release of their stress test results.
“A lot of people that doubted the rally are becoming more positive on it,” Australia’s Colonial First State Global Asset Management portfolio manager Scott Tully told Bloomberg yesterday.
Positive economic data which showed consumer spending in the US growing in the quickest pace in two years and better-than-estimated Japanese production last week has kept market confidence in check since.
