KUALA LUMPUR (Apr 28): The FBM KLCI fell 5.69 points or 0.31% on profit taking ahead of the two-day US Federal Reserve's policy meeting beginning today.

At 12.30pm, the KLCI settled at 1,853.89 on gains in stocks like Petronas Dagangan Bhd.

The KLCI had tracked Asian share losses. Reuters reported that Asian stocks pulled back from a seven-year peak scaled on Tuesday as sentiment gave way to caution ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy two-day meeting scheduled to start later in the session.

South Korea's Kospi fell 0.41% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 0.09%.

In Malaysia, Bursa Malaysia saw decliners outpacing gainers by 624 to 152, while 292 counters traded unchanged. The bourse saw a volume of 1.14 billion shares valued at RM899.66 million.

Top decliners included British American Tobacco (M) Bhd, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd, and Malaysian Pacific Industries Bhd. Top gainers included Dutch Lady Milk Industries Bhd, Petronas Dagangan Bhd and KKB Engineering Bhd.

The most active stocks included Luster Industries Bhd, Frontken Corp Bhd and Vsolar Group Bhd.

Among gainers, KKB (fundamental: 2.5; valuation: 1.4) rose as much as 22 sen or 13% after the construction firm posted a significant rise in first quarter profit and revenue from a year earlier.

KKB, which is also involved in steel fabrication, reported yesterday net profit increased seven fold at RM26.67 million from RM3.8 million. Revenue came in higher at RM76.73 million from RM42.62 million.

At 12.30pm today, KKB settled at RM1.78. The seventh-largest gainer saw trades of some three million shares.

“KKB’s rise today is due to positive first quarter results,” InterPacific Securities remisier Sam Ng told theedgemarkets.com. Ng noted that KKB was a proxy and a beneficiary of government-related contracts.

In currency markets, the ringgit strengthened against the US dollar at 3.5560 and compared to the Singapore dollar, the ringgit depreciated to 2.6770.

The ringgit has strengthened against the US dollar after Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz ruled out last week the need to reduce interest rates to support the economy.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)