KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips extended their losses on Tuesday, dragged down by Maybank and Genting, as profit taking picked up pace in a rather lacklustre market with Bursa Malaysia among the two losers among the key Asian markets.
The bright spots in the market were the recovery in the ringgit and crude palm oil prices while crude oil prices managed to eke out some gains. However, they were not enough to draw out the buyers.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down 6.53 points or 0.38% to 1,711.15. Turnover was 1.49 billion shares valued at RM1.91bil. There were 329 gainers, 422 losers and 408 counters unchanged.
European shares hit three-month highs on Tuesday following gains on Asian bourses as a rise in oil prices, partly due to a workers' strike in Kuwait, boosting investors' appetite to take on risk, Reuters reported. US light crude oil rose 40 cents to US$40.18 and Brent gained 44 cents to US$43.35.
The ringgit was at 3.8860 to the US dollar from 3.9295 while it was at 5.5654 to the pound sterling from 5.5745. It was firmer against the Singapore dollar at 2.8899 versus 2.8986 the previous day while against the eruro, it was at 4.4040 from 4.4430.
Maybank fell eight sen to RM9.08 and erase 1.33 points from the KLCI. HLFG fell the most and it was the top loser of the day, down 50 sen to RM15.18 and wiping out nearly one point.
Public Bank lost eight sen to RM19, Hong Leong Bank six sen to RM13.42, RHB Cap was flat at RM6.19, AmBank added three sen to RM4.59 while CIMB managed to advance five sen to RM4.85.
Genting Bhd
fell 19 sen to RM8.99 and erased 1.21 points from the KLCI, Genting Malaysia three sen to RM4.50, MISC five sen to RM8.85 but Tenaga added two sen to RM14.40.
As for oil and gas stocks, Petronas Gas lost 12 sen to RM21.88, Petronas Dagangan 10 sen to RM23.76 and Petronas Chemicals four sen to RM6.69 while SK Petro eked out one sen to RM1.79. Bumi Armada, which had fallen to record lows, inched up one sen to 72 sen.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery climbed RM18 to RM2,686 per tonne. PPB Group fell 20 sen to RM16.38, Ta Ann 15 sen to RM4.80, Genting Plantations 12 sen to RM10.64, KL Kepong eight sen to RM23.92, IOI Corp two sen to RM4.47 but Sime added 10 sen to RM7.94.
Pecca ended its first day at RM1.71, up 29 sen with 59 million shares done.
AirAsia added seven sen to RM2.12, firmly on its recovery phase while AirAsia X added 0.5 sen to 35 sen and AAX-WA also up 0.5 sen to 19 sen.
Spring Gallery jumped 10.5 sen to 80 sen in active trade after its warrants started trading and sentiment was boosted by a RM176mil construction job to undertake a mixed development project in Johor. Its warrants rose 13 sen to 22.5 sen and its ICPS jumped four sen to 10.5 sen.
Consumer stocks were among the top gainers, with Ajinomoto up 48 sen to RM9.50, BAT 44 sen to RM55.54, Nestle 32 sen to RM74.92, Dutch Lady 24 sen to RM52.60 and F&N 22 sen to RM20.40.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rebounded 3.68% to 16,874.44;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 1.3% to 21,436.21;
CSI 300 gained 0.31% to 3,238.30;
Shanghai’s Composite Index gained 0.3% to 3,042.82;
Shenzhen Composite 0.3% to 1,958.20;
Hang Seng China Enterprise added 1.69% to 9,244.45;
Taiwan’s Taiex lost 0.37% to 8,633.72;
South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.11% to 2,011.36; and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index gained 1.17% to 2,951.81.
Spot gold rose US$9.95 to US$1,242.44.
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