KLCI TOPS TO A RECORD 1,667 POINTS IN EARLY TRADE

KUALA LUMPUR : The local stock market index rose to a record high of 1,667.910 points in early trade this morning on external factors, before settling at 1,666.550 points at 9.46am — the second consecutive day the benchmark index breached its previous record.

Malaysian stocks had rallied yesterday alongside most of Asia on upbeat US economic data as well as news of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak (picture) mulling corporate tax cuts and the possibility of a budget surplus over the medium term.

“Local funds are supporting the index-linked stocks ahead of the general election, which must be held before May 2013,” a broker with a local bank-backed brokerage house was quoted as saying by The Edge.

Najib said Malaysia is mulling a corporate tax cut in the short- to medium-term to boost the country’s competitiveness. He had cut one percentage point for personal income tax up to RM50,000 of chargeable income in last week’s Budget 2013 proposals.

In an interview with CNBC, the prime minister highlighted the possibility of a budget surplus for Malaysia after 2016.

Malaysia’s gains yesterday mirrored those across most of Asia, with major Asian indices showing gains of between 0.07 per cent and 1.27 per cent at the close.

The key index recorded a fresh high at 1,666.01 points as of 9.12am this morning after yesterday’s all-time high of 1,662.14 points, reported Bernama.

HwangDBS Vickers Research said after hitting new record highs yesterday, the local bourse would be looking to hold on to its recent gains.

“The benchmark FBM KLCI was up 49.1-point or 3.0 per cent over the last eight days and it may strive to pull away a bit more from the resistance-turned-support level of 1,655.

“Coming in to lift investors’ sentiment today is a positive external backdrop,” it said in a research note.

Leading equity indices on Wall Street rose between 0.5 per cent and 0.7 per cent last night amid better economic news flows from the US and Europe, which have given hope that their economies are on the road to recovery, HwangDBS said.

The Finance Index surged 21.359 points to 14,685.60, the Plantation Index rose 19.04 points to 8,179.94 and the Industrial Index gained 4.98 points to 2,845.39.

The FBM Emas Index advanced 23.16 points to 11,288.16, the FBM Mid 70 Index added seven points to 12,096.40 and the FBM Ace advanced 11.62 points to 4,280.47.

Gainers led losers by 135 to 56, with 155 counters unchanged, 1,293 untraded and 20 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 86.310 million shares worth RM41.419 million.

Of the actives, YTL Corp-Warr fell a sen to 16.5 sen, Scomi Group was flat at 40 sen and JCY International lost 3.5 sen to 75 sen.

Among heavyweights, Maybank added a sen to RM9.09, Sime Darby rose three sen to RM9.71, Axiata gained six sen to RM6.76 and CIMB earned two sen to RM7.65.