Malaysian shares end flat

Malaysian share prices closed flat on Thursday with gains in late trade off-setting profit-taking on fresh worries over inflation in the United States, dealers said. Plantation stocks continued to rally on high crude palm oil prices.
While property stocks were buoyed by optimism ahead of an expected announcement on land development by the government on Friday, they said. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index inched higher by 0.97 points to 1,307.19 while volume traded was 2.13 billion shares, valued at 2.99 billion ringgit (867.09 million ringgit).
Gainers led losers 475 to 445, with 274 stocks unchanged. The ringgit was at 3.4465/4515 to the dollar at the close. A technical analyst at a local brokerage said profit-taking picked up momentum in late trade, but a concerted push in the last few minutes of trading ensured the benchmark closed higher.
"Core blue chips had been lower on profit-taking due to their overbought technical conditions," he said. Among blue chips, Tenaga added 0.10 ringgit to 12.00, Telekom Malaysia rose 0.20 10.40, while Maybank was down 0.20 to 12.30.
Plantation stocks were broadly higher with crude palm oil prices expected to stay firm on biofuel developments, and an expected fall in US soybean oil production. PPB Oil Palms led the advance among palm oil producers, up 1.40 at 15.10, followed by IOI Corp, up 0.70 at 24.70.
Kuala Lumpur Kepong rose 0.10 to 12.80, Kumpulan Guthrie advanced 0.50 to 6.20 and Sime Darby added 0.45 to 9.55. Property stocks were higher ahead of the expected policy announcement for the sector, which analysts said would likely focus on cutting red tape for the construction and property industries. Among developers, YTL Land gained 0.08 to 1.27, Bandar Raya Development rose 0.12 to 2.49 and IGB was up 0.04 at 2.66.
Budget carrier AirAsia was down 0.01 at 1.79 after its chief executive officer Tony Fernandes reportedly said he wanted to hand back rural air services to Malaysia Airlines. AirAsia assumed the services last year from Malaysia Airlines under a government-enforced rationalisation of domestic air routes.