KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips closed off their day’s best on Thursday as investors were quick to take profit on Maxis and other index-linked stocks but the broader market sentiment was still firm.
This was the third straight days of gains for the FBM KLCI, sparked by Fitch Ratings’ surprising upgrade of Malaysia’s sovereigns to Stable from Negative.
However, what was evident was that foreign funds had been selling on Tuesday and Wednesday with retail investors also taking profit.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 5.92 points or 0.34% to 1,733.88, but off the day’s best of 1,738. Trading volume and value fell from the previous day to 1.45 billion shares valued at RM1.85bil. Advancers led decliners 388 to 351 while 334 counters were unchanged.
The ringgit weakened to 3.7752 against the US dollar from the previous day’s 3.7485 as the greenback was near a three-week high.
Reuters reported world stock markets had a delicate feel, as the implication of US jobs data later for a possible Fed rate hike added to Europe's uncertainty over Greece.
Chinese shares also remained in focus as they suffered another heavy tumble overnight to take their loses over the last six weeks to 25%, countering otherwise solid performances in the rest of Asia's main centres.
At Bursa Malaysia, BAT was the top gainer, up 88 sen to RM64 sen. However, Dutch Lady
was the top loser, down 26 sen to RM45.50.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery fell RM1 to RM2,266. Among the plantations, Chin Tek rose 58 sen to RM9.28, KL Kepong 56 sen higher at RM22.30, United Plantations 46 sen to RM27.16, Genting Plantations 23 sen to RM10.22 and PPB Group 14 sen to to RM15.24 while IOI Corp gained eight sen to RM4.22 but Sarawak Plantations lost 10 sen to RM2.04.
US light crude oil rose three cents to US$56.99 and Brent advanced 23 cents to US$62.24. Petronas Gas added six sen to RM21.60, Petronas Chemicals five sen to RM6.41 but Petronas Dagangan lost two sen to RM20.56.
Glove maker Hartalega was up 27 sen to RM8.84.
Lii Henn jumped 45 sen to RM5.30 after it proposed a bonus issue of 30 million new shares on a one-for-two basis and a proposed share split.
Maxis fell the most among the telcos, down 12 sen to RM6.37 on profit taking while DiGi shed five sen to RM5.48.
Time dotCom was off the day’s best despite announcing the special interim single-tier dividend of 73.5 sen per share for FY15. It closed 15 sen higher at RM7, off the high of RM7.43.
“A slight concern is that this round of bumper payout could indirectly signal a lack of M&A opportunities in the near-term, thus putting a dent to Time dotCom’s regional expansion plans,” said Maybank Investment Bank Research.
Property developer Titijaya lost 13 sen to RM1.85 while Scanwolf plunged 11.5 sen to 28 sen.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.95% to 20,522.50;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.12% to 26,282.32;
Shanghai’s Composite Index fell 3.48% to 3,912.77;
Shenzen Composite Index pluged 5.55% to 2,215.81;
Taiwan’s Taiex rose 0.04% to 9,379.24;
South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.45% to 2,107.33; and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index fell 0.1% to 3,327.84.
Spot gold fell US$4.32 to US$1,164.46.
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