KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips fell at midday on Friday, tracking the losses in key regional markets, with Genting Bhd
and Maxis weighing on the FBM KLCI, while the ringgit weakened against the main currencies.
At 12.30pm, the KLCI was down 4.32 points or 0.25% to 1,717.15. Turnover was 821.74 million shares valued at RM679.85mil. There were 308 gainers, 359 losers and 323 counters unchanged.
China stocks fell on Friday morning, on track to post their biggest weekly decline in three months, as resource shares tumbled after regulators moved to cool commodities trading amid signs of overheating, Reuters reported.
Hong Kong shares also weakened, tracking regional markets, after Wall Street suffered its first loss in four sessions amid disappointing earnings from US blue chip companies.
At Bursa Malaysia, investors decided to take profit ahead of the weekend and lack of leads from funds.
The ringgit weakened against most major currencies. It fell to 3.9030 to the US dollar from the previous close of 3.8853 while it slipped to 5.6000 to the pound sterling from 5.5603. It was lower against the Singapore dollar at 2.8950 from 2.8853 and slipped against the euro to 4.4099 from 4.3875.
Oil prices rose in Asian trade on Friday, setting crude futures on course for solid weekly gains, as market sentiment becomes more upbeat despite ongoing oversupply, Reuters reported. US light crude oil rose 51 cents to US$43.69 and Brent gained 45 cents to US$44.98.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery fell RM24 to RM2,711 per tonne.
At Bursa Malaysia, Genting fell 13 sen to RM9.47 and erased 0.81 points from the KLCI and Maxis fell six sen to RM5.89 and wiped out 0.75 of a point.
Among the finance and bank stocks, HLFG fell 20 sen to RM15.30, RHB Cap six sen to RM6.22 and AmBank three sen to RM4.61 while CIMB shed two sen to RM4.90. Maybank added three sen to RM9.04, Public Bank two sen to RM19.12 and Hong Leong Bank four sen to RM13.66.
Tenaga rose two sen to RM14.52, IHH four sen to RM6.72 and UMW two sen to RM6.87. However, MAHB lost 18 sen to RM6.68.
As for oil and gas stocks, Petronas Gas lost 12 sen to RM21.96, Petronas Daganagan four sen to RM23.78 and Petronas Chemicals two sen to RM6.71 while SapuraKencana was down four sen to RM1.77.
Bumi Armada fell 0.5 sen to 79 sen in active as traders locked in gains since its rebound from the record low on Monday.
Consumer stocks found favour, with BAT up 42 sen to RM54.40, Nestle 38 sen to RM75.08, D&N 24 sen tp RM21.24 and Ducth Lady 20 sen to RM53.60.
KAF rose 18 sen to RM2.68 as the takeover offer became unconditional. Aeon Credit stronger earnings saw the share price climb 12 sen to RM12.90.
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