KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips clawed out of their early losses on Tuesday to climb into the positive zone, underpinned by a recovery in Petronas Chemicals and MISC but losses in Tenaga Nasional held back the advance.
At 12.30pm, the KLCI was up 1.85 points or 0.11% to 1,634.04 – off the early low of 1,614.4. Turnover was 849.51 million shares valued at RM820.81mil. There were 300 gainers, 359 losers and 348 counters unchanged.
Barrons reported J.P. Morgan downgraded Malaysia to Underweight largely because it is worried about Malaysian banks, which also account for about 30% of the iShares MSCI Malaysia ETF (EWM).
“Negative outlook on financials (c. 30% of MSCI Malaysia) driven by increasing credit costs,” the research house was cited, due to declining loan and deposit growth. “Banks are grappling with rising NPLs (expected to peak at 3.1% in 2018),” it said.
The ringgit weakened against the major currencies. It fell to 4.0573 against the US dollar from 4.0122; it slipped to 5.8422 to the pound sterling from 5.7897 while it was down against the Singapore dollar to 2.9598 and 2.9404 and lost ground against the Euro at 4.6140 from 4.5718.
Meanwhile, China stocks steadied on Tuesday morning after shedding more than 5% in the previous two sessions, but market sentiment remained bearish on concerns over the economy. Hong Kong shares dipped, as the energy sector dropped on weak oil prices, Reuters reported.
At Bursa Malaysia, MISC rebounded 32 sen to RM7.57 and pushed the KLCI up 2,41 points after falling more than RM1 on Monday.
Maxis recouped some of the earlier losses to add 11 sen to RM5.48 and push the KLCI up 1.39 points, Telekom gained one sen to RM6.61, Digi fell four sen to RM4.36 while also down four sen was Axiata to RM5.36.
Among the banks, Maybank rose four sen to RM8.80, CIMB one sen to RM4.70, Public Bank was flat at RM19.06, Hong Leong Bank lost four sen to RM13.24.
Tenaga fell 16 sen to RM13.96 and erased RM1.52 points, Genting eight sen to RM8.33 and Genting Malaysia shed two sen to RM4.28.
US light crude oil shed eight sen to US$43.36 but Brent gained nine cents to US$43.72. Petronas Chemicals rose 33 sen to RM6.44 and pushed the KLCI up 4.46 points, Petronas Gas 12 sen higher at RM21.02 but Petronas Dagangan fell 26 sen to RM22.74.
As for consumer stocks, Ajnomoto added 52 sen to RM11.92, Nestle 40 sen to RM75.60, Dutch Lady
38 sen to RM53.80. BAT fell 26 sen to RM46.96.
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