KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia was the only Asian stock market in the red at midday on Monday as funds reduced their stakes after US index provider MSCI reduced its weightage for Malaysia's equities.
At 12.30pm, the KLCI was down 12.36 points or 0.76% to 1,615.90. Turnover was 952.51 million shares valued at RM670.46mil. The broader market was weaker with decliners beating advancers 500 to 166 while 299 counters were unchanged.
At Bursa Malaysa, Axiata, CIMB and Petronas Gas were the main drags on the KLCI, erasing a total of 4.86 points from the KLCI.
Blue chips have under selling pressure as foreign funds reduce their stakes and this was further aggravated by MISC's review. Foreign funds were net sellers at RM1.004bil last week ended March 13.Last Friday saw heavy foreign selling especially of key blue chips including Maybank and CIMB with net selling at –RM657.6mil.
The ringgit weakened against the US dollar to 4.0357 from 4.0310 and was at 2.9430 to the Singapore dollar to 2.9430 from 2.9410. However, it was firmer against the pound sterling at 5.7979 from 5.8100 and at 4.5635 to the euro from 4.5755.
Aiaxta fell 15 sen to RM5.38 and erased 2.12 points from the KLCI. Telekom lost three sen to RM6.60, Maxis and Digi shed two sen each to RM5.44 and RM4.38.
US light crude oil rose 64 cents to US$46.85 and Brent added 65 sen to US$48.48 but the rise in prices did not have a positive impact on Petronas stocks. Petronas Gas fell 36 sen to RM20.96, Petreonas Dagangan lost six sen to RM22.64 and Petronas Chemical eased one sen to RM6.19. SK Petro shed one sen to RM1.57.
As for banks, Hong Leong Bank lost 18 sen to RM13.26, CIMB 10 sen to RM4.30, RHB Cap seven sen to RM5.87, Public Bank four sen to RM19 andMaybank three sen to RM8.46.
As for consumer stocks, BAT fell the most, down 80 sen to RM47.62 after last Friday's gains when it was upgraded by MSCI. Poultry company Lay Hong fell 19 sen to RM9.03 but Dutch Lady
added 98 sen to RM56.10.
LKL was the most active on its trading debut, up 10. 5 sen to 30.5 sen with 110 million shares done.
AirAsia rose six sen to RM2.22 after it was upgraded ahead of better Q1 results. AAX added 1.5 sen to 39.5 sen and the warrants three sen higher at 29.5 sen.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery rose RM12 to RM2,572. However, Sime Darby fell seven sen to RM7.21, KL Kepong six sen to RM22.80, IOI Corp lost one sen to RM4.12 but PPB Group gained two sen to RM15.60.
The ringgit weakened against the US dollar to 4.0357 from 4.0310 and was at 2.9430 to the Singapore dollar to 2.9430 from 2.9410. However, it was firmer against the pound sterling at 5.7979 from 5.8100 and at 4.5635 to the euro from 4.5755.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.23% to 16,613.73;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 1.22% to 19,959.71;
CSI 300 gained 0.27% to 3,083.26;
Shanghai’s Composite Index added 0.23% to 2,833.48;
Shenzhen Composite added 0.8% to 1,798.52;
Hang Seng China Enterprise advanced 0.94% to 8,379.25;
Taiwan’s Taiex was up 0.36% to 8,082.43;
South Korea’s Kospi inched up 0.01% to 1,967.16; and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index added 0.06% to 2,736.51.
Spot gold added US$3.83 to US$1,277.28.
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