KUALA LUMPUR: Plantation heavyweight IOI Corp and Maybank fell at the midday break on Friday in relatively thin trade but Public Bank managed to regain part of its recent losses.
At 12.30pm, the KLCI was down 5.89 points or 0.36% to 1,628.04. Turnover was 704.48 million shares valued at RM802.32mil. There were 295 gainers, 327 losers and 308 counters unchanged.
The ringgit continued to lose ground, sliding to 4.4412 to the US dollar from 4.4412 from 4.4067 while it was quoted at 6.7272 against the pound sterling from 6.6746 and it was at 3.0938 to the Singapore dollar from 3.0860.
Maybank fell nine sen to RM8.46 and erased 1.44 points from the KLCI. Hong Leong Bank lost 14 sen to RM13.12, AmBank three sen to RM4.57, RHB Cap two sen to RM5.96 and CIMB one sen to RM4.48. Public Bank gained 12 sen to RM17.78.
US light crude oil rose 47 cents to US$45.21 and Brent added 33 cents to US$48.02. Petronas Gas added four sen to RM22.18 while Petronas Chemicals and Petronas Dagangan added two sen to RM6.08 and RM22.02. SK Petro was flat at RM1.86.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery rose RM19 to RM2,433 per tonne. TAHPS was the top gainer, adding 20 sen to RM7 KL Kepong six sen to RM22.34 and PPB Group four sen to RM15.40.
IOI Corp lost 20 sen to RM4.20 and erased 2.18 points from the KLCI.
Among the poultry stocks, LTKM added 13 sen to RM1.73. Lay Hong rose five sen to RM5.30 despite its early query from Bursa Malaysia Securities over the unusual market activity.
Glove maker Kossan added 13 sen to RM7.83 while Top Glove fell three sen to RM7.94.
Aemulus
was the most active, flat at 56 sen after it was queried by Bursa Securities.
AirAsia shed one sen to RM1.25 in active trade. Alliance DBS Research has downgraded AirAsia to fully valued with a target price of RM1.05 after it proposed to convert its debt from Indonesia AirAsia (IAA) into perpetual securities.
The research house said on Friday this corporate exercise will not take IAA to positive equity while third party investors’ participation remains crucial
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.05% to 17,731.04;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index jumped 2.7% to 21,408.78;
Taiwan’s Taiex added 0.1% to 8,304.01;
South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.34% to 1,972.67 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index fell 0.53% to 2,787.13.
Spot gold fell US$1.16 to US$1,112.45.
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