Another record high for the year

The KL Composite Index surged to another record high for the year on Nov 16. Trading gained momentum as the day progressed underpinned by active interest in lower-liner stocks.

Market breadth was positive for much of the day despite some ongoing profit-taking activities. At the close, gaining stocks outnumbered losing ones by nearly two to one.

The prevailing sentiment remains bullish even though the market has seen significant gains in recent weeks. Profit-taking activities have been very well absorbed on the back of healthy market volume. Over 1.2 billion shares were traded, the highest daily volume in nearly six months.

Lower-liner stocks with the likes of Amsteel Corp, Scomi Group and Ekran dominated the most actives list. Warrants also appears back in favour in view of the current expectations for more upside. These derivatives offer investors greater leverage (and gains) in a bullish market.

Gains chalked up by key index-linked stocks like BAT, Telekom Malaysia and Maxis Communications led the benchmark index nine points higher to 1,037.6. Other big gainers were DiGi.Com, KL Kepong, KNM Group, EON Capital and Ta Ann. Retailer AEON Co has also done very well over the past two weeks. The stock added another 30 sen to close at RM7.15.