Written by Joseph Chin
Saturday, 30 January 2010 21:13
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's stock market ended January on a weak note, down nearly 14 points at 1,259.16 on Friday, Jan 29 from the close of 1,272.78 on Dec 31.
The FBM KCLI which managed to cross the 1,300 pyschological level on Jan 19, failed to sustain on mainly external events, including negative news from the US, despite the improvement in local corporate earnings.
On Wall Street, US stocks dropped on Friday, Jan 29 as worries about fiscal turmoil in Europe and a drop in TECHNOLOGY [] stocks pushed the S&P 500 to its worst monthly decline since February 2009.
According to Reuters, uncertainty about the fiscal stability of Greece, Portugal and Spain caused U.S. investors to pull back from early gains, even as Greek and European Union officials said there was no chance of a Greek default or EU bailout.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 53.13 points, or 0.52%, to 10,067.33. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 10.66 points, or 0.98%, to 1,073.87. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 31.65 points, or 1.45%, to 2,147.35.
The recent sell-off has seen the S&P 500 tumble 6.7% in the last eight trading sessions.
For the week, the Dow lost 1.1%, the S&P 500 fell 1.7% and the Nasdaq lost 2.6%. For January, the Dow slid 3.5%, the S&P 500 shed 3.7% and the Nasdaq tumbled 5.4%.
As for Bursa Malaysia, it is only the market to close for trading on Monday, Feb 1 for Federal Territory Day while all other key regional markets are open.
Stocks to watch on Tuesday include LCL CORPORATION BHD [], AE MULTI HOLDINGS BHD [], MISC BHD [] and The Store Corp Bhd.
LCL said it had identified US-based KHS&S as a potential investor to regularise its financial condition.
KHS&S, which builds theme parks in the US, has built Disney Land, Disney World, Universal Studio, Red Rock Casino, Sea World and the Las Vegas MGM Casino.
AE Multi is in talks to acquire 18% of British Virgin Islands-registered BL Holdings Ltd.BL Holdings is the sole owner of Ben's Entertainment City (HK) Ltd which owns a cruise business.
The Store Corp reported a variance between the audited and unaudited financial statements for FY ended Sept 30, 2009 following the provision of allowance for doubtful debt of RM10.827 million.
KUMPULAN JETSON BHD [] is teaming up with China State CONSTRUCTION [] Engineering (Hong Kong) Ltd (CSCHK) to look into the possibility of tendering for a construction project along Jalan Stonor, Kuala Lumpur.
The project involves two blocks of office building, 50 stories and 38 stories each, and a 10 storey podium block for Naza TTDI Sdn Bhd. Kumpulan Jetson and Nzaza TTDI have some common shareholders via the Naza Group.