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ASEAN to Trade Higher, Thailand Seen Flat

Shayne Heffernan

www.livetradingnews.com

ASEAN Markets will begin the rally back to record highs today with the exception of Thailand that is still dogged by internal issues.

PTT, PTTEP, Resorts World Sentosa are Shayne Heffernan's best buys for the day.

Overnight on Wall St

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 69.48 points higher, by 0.57 percent, at 12,161.63. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was up 8.18 points, or 0.62 percent, at 1319.05. The Nasdaq composite had risen 14.69, or 0.53 percent, to 2783.99.

The Dow and the S&P 500 surpassed significant milestones last week after Pfizer, UPS and other large companies reported higher earnings. There was also a strong report on manufacturing. The Dow closed above 12,000 and the S&P 500 index above 1300 for the first time in two and a half years.

Both indices are trading at levels last seen in June 2008, three months before the worst of the financial crisis.

This week is light on economic data, but plenty of companies are releasing quarterly earnings.

In Kuala Lumpur the index gained 3.78 points or 0.25 percent on Monday.

Most Active stocks include IRIS, KBUNAI, TALAM, SAAG, HWGB, RAMUNIA, IRIS-WB, JOTECH-WA, RAMUNIA-WA and JOTECH.

Trading volume increased to 3238.64 mil shares worth RM2618.07 mil as compared to Tuesday’s 1531.90 mil shares worth RM1701.94 mil.

The Winners were KLK (+110 sen to RM22.70), AXIATA (+8 sen to RM4.94), MAYBANK (+7sen to RM8.80), PETCHEM (+15 sen to RM6.30) and SIME (+4 sen to RM9.33).

The Losers were GENTING (-44 sen to RM10.90), PPB (-12 sen to RM17.00), MAXIS (-3 sen to RM5.33), BAT (-44 sen to RM47.56) and MISC (-3 sen to RM8.26).

The Finance Index increased 0.29% to 14012.23 points, the Properties Index up 0.93 percent to 1124.31 points and the Plantation Index rose 1.54% to 8079.69 points.

The market traded within a range of 7.68 points between an intra-day high of 1541.43 and a low of 1533.75 during the session.

Market breadth was positive with 567 gainers as compared to 287 losers.

In Bangkok, border clashes and political rumblings did not help the market. The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) composite index on Monday lost 6.12 points or 0.62 percent to close at 978.66 points. The market value was 10.54 billion baht, with 1.48 billion shares traded.

"Thailand stocks remain significantly undervalued" Shayne Heffernan said today in Bangkok.

PTT, PTTEP and IRPC are standout buys in Thailand,

The SET100 index ended the session at 1,487.67 points, down 10.20 points or 0.68 percent, with a total trade value of 9.18 billion baht.

Top five most active values were as follows;

PTT closed at 338.00 baht, down by 7.00 or 2.03 percent.

TMB closed at 2.14 baht, up by 0.08 or 3.88 percent.

PTTEP closed at 177.00 baht, down by 1.00 or 0.56 percent.

BANPU closed at 750.00 baht, down by 4.00 or 0.53 percent.

PTTAR closed at 38.50 baht, up by 0.50 or 1.32 percent.

In Singapore share prices fell on Monday, with the Straits Times Index (STI) down 18.94 points, or 0.59 percent, at 3,192.18.

Resorts World Sentosa has signed the S$4.19 billion ($3.2 billion) refinancing of debt that backed its 2008 development of the Sentosa casino resort, Singapore. Four new banks have joined 15 existing lenders. Commitments to the deal were processed in under two weeks.

Shares of casino operator Genting Singapore fell as much as 2.4 per cent on Monday after Las Vegas Sands Corp , which owns Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, posted lower-than-expected revenue.

The market opened after the four-day Spring Festival holiday. A total of 1.39 billion shares changed hands on a market turnover of 1.55 billion Singapore dollars(US$1.21 billion).

In Manila the Philippine Stock Exchange closed up 7.68 points or about 0.2 percent to close at 3,880.03.

The gain was led by the financial, industrial, holding firms and mining/oil firms while property and services traded in the red.

The Losers Metrobank, Union Bank, Belle, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, Leisure & Resorts World, Megaworld, EDC, DMCI, Ayala and Banco de Oro with caution.

The Winners were Aboitiz Power, Alliance Global, Nickel Asia, SM Investments, Semirara Mining, Empire East Land, Atlas Consolidated and Oriental Peninsula.

Value turnover was still thin at P3.06 billion. Advancers and decliners were equal at 61 for the day while 42 stocks were unchanged.

In Jakarta the Jakarta Composite Index opened flat before moving lower on Monday. With regional markets wavering with uncertainty during the Lunar New Year holiday,the JCI shed 8.46 points, or 0.24 percent, to close at 3,487.71.

The mining sector was down 1.18 percent, with coal miner Borneo Lumbung Energy and Metal shedding 3.03 percent to Rp 1,600 and Bumi Resource falling 1.75 percent to Rp 2,800.

The agribusiness sector led the downturn with a 1.63 percent drop and is where London Sumatra Plantation, Indonesia’s second-biggest plantation company, lost 3.39 percent to close at Rp 11,400, and rates a strong buy as does BW Plantation which fell 4.03 percent to Rp 1,190.

About 2.18 billion shares worth Rp 3.49 trillion ($390 million) changed hands on Monday, well below the usual volume of 3 billion to 4 billion shares.

Bank Indonesia announced last week that it would let the rupiah appreciate by lowering its activity in the money market.

The rupiah strengthened to trade at 8,938 to the US dollar at the market’s close on Monday, from 9,005 at Friday’s close.