KLCI briefly slips below key 1,600

KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips continued to lose ground early Tuesday, with the FBM KLCI briefly falling below the key 1,600 level on selling of Tenaga and Hong Leong Bank.

At 9.27am, the KLCI was down 5.43 points or 0.34% to 1,603. Turnover was 346.44 million shares valued at RM234.92mil. Decliners beat advancers 277 to 103 while 149 counters were unchanged.

However, more downside was seen after the sharp overnight fall on Wall Street and continued net selling of Malaysian equities by foreign funds.

BIMB Securities Research said there was little impetus for the market to improve thus “we may see the FBM KLCI re-test the 1,600 mark again today”

On the external front, Asian shares skidded to three-week lows and the dollar sagged on Tuesday, after weak Chinese data rekindled worries about its fragile economy and led to sharp losses on Wall Street, according to Reuters.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.7% in early trading, touching its lowest levels since Sept 8. Japan's Nikkei stock index tumbled 2.4%.

At Bursa Malaysia, LPI – the major shareholder of Public  Bank --- fell 28 sen to RM13.60. Hong Leong Bank was down 12 sen to RM13.10.

Gamuda lost eight sen to RM4.42. CIMB Equities Research is upbeat on the infrastructure-property based company as the visibility of the next growth cycle is good.

Power giant Tenaga was down eight sen also  to RM11.96.

KESM was down eight sen also to RM4.10. Fitch Ratings believes the revenue from the highly fragmented outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) industry could fall by 10% during 2015-16.

http://www.thestar.com.my/Business/Business-News/2015/09/28/Fitch-sees-semicon-outsourcing-revenue-falling-by-10pct/?style=biz 

United Plantations added 20 sen to RM26.20 in thin trade while Hap Seng Plantations added 15 sen to RM2.20.

BAT managed to eke out some small gains after the last selling the previous day, adding 18 sen to RM60.98.

Hartalega displayed its resilience with the glove maker adding 15 sen to RM5.13.

Petronas Gas added eight sen to RM21.94.