KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips closed lower on Wednesday, as selling pressure gathered pace in late trade, with Axiata, IOI Corp and Genting among the losers as investors ignored the recovery in the ringgit against the major currencies and firmer crude oil prices.
The FBM KLCI closed down 18.05 points or 1.09% to 1,644.41, tracking the losses in Japan and Singapore. Turnover fell to 887.61 million shares valued at RM1.05bil. Decliners beat advancers two to one with 506 losers to 249 gainers and 220 counters unchanged.
Key Asian markets which were opened also ended in the red, with Japan falling more than 2% and Singapore’s Straits Times Index erasing 1.79%. China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea were closed for the Chinese New Year holidays.
The ringgit strengthened against the US dollar to 4.1217 – the strongest since October 2015 – from 4.1712. It was also firmer against the pound sterling at 5.9825 from 6.0223 and it was at 2.9585 versus the Singapore dollar from 2.9751.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery was down RM2 to RM2,578 per tonne despite that palm oil inventories in Malaysia fell to the lowest in six months in January as El Nino-wrought dry weather exacerbated seasonally low production in the world's second- largest grower. Wire reports quoting the Malaysian Palm Oil Board showed inventories fell 12% to 2.31 million tonnes last month.
However, this did not provide much comfort to plantation stocks as KL Kepong fell 86 sen to RM22.96, PPB Group 32 sen to RM15.68 and IOI Corp 22 sen to RM4.54. Sime Darby lost 19 sen to RM7.68 and erased nearly two points from the KLCI.
As for telcos, Axiata was the top loser, down 21 sen to RN5.68 and wiping out 3.07 points from the KLCI. Digi fell 15 sen to RM4.88, Telekom two sen to RM6.62 but Maxis bucked the trend to climb 12 sen to RM6.21.
Among the banks, Maybank rose five sen to RM8.59 but Public Bank shed six sen to RM18.48, CIMB and Hong Leong Bank four sen each to RM4.09 and RM13.10 but Maybank gained five sen to RM8.59.
Genting Bhd
fell 20 sen to RM7.76 and Genting Malaysia 13 sen to RM4.46.
Oil prices, which fell 8% on Tuesday, picked up after Iran said it was open to cooperation with Saudi Arabia on current conditions in the market, Reuters reported. US light crude oil jumped 76 cents to US$28.70 and Brent 98 cents higher at US$31.30.
LNG shipper MISC rose 15 sen to RM4.88 despite analysts expectations of more headwinds for the sector due to the weak oil demand, especially from China. Petronas Dagangan lost 20 sen to RM24.90, Petronas Gas fell 18 sen to RM22.32, Petronas Chemicals four sen to RM6.94 and SapuraKencana lost six sen to RM1.79.
Consumer stocks were mostly higher except for BAT which fell 44 sen to RM56.06 but Dutch Lady rose 92 sen to RM49.80, Ajinomoto 51 sen to RM8.85, Nestle 50 sen to RM75 and F&N 30 sen to RM18.90.
Glove makers were higher with Kossan up 21 sen to RM6.70 and Top Glove 15 sen to RM5.62.
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