KLCI slips back into the red at midday

KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips slipped back into the red at midday on Wednesday in very volatile trading as selling pressure picked up pace in late morning but some fund support for Maybank helped shore up the FBM KLCI.

At 12.30pm, the KLCI was down just 0.07 of a point to 1,633.32. Turnover was 1.09 billion shares valued at RM826.47mil. There were 260 gainers, 429 losers and 337 counters unchanged.

Asian shares weakened on Wednesday in the wake of accelerating US inflation and comments from Federal Reserve officials that rekindled prospects of an interest rate rise as early as June, Reuters reported.

But Japanese shares erased losses after the world's third-largest economy posted surprisingly strong annualised 1.7% growth during the January-March quarter.

The ringgit was weaker against the major currencies. It fell to 4.03322 against the US dollar from 4.0200 the previous day and weakened against the pound sterling to 5.8222 from 5.8159 and it was at 4.5532 to the euro from 4.5524. It firmed up against the Singapore dollar to 2.9357 from 2.9369.

Maybank rose eight sen to RM8.61 and pushed the KLCI up 1.31 points, Public Bank added four sen to RM19.20 and CIMB two sen to RM4.34 but Holf Leong Bank fell 16 sen RM13.28.

US light crude oil rose 18 cents to US$48.49 and Brent gained 12 cents to US$49.40. Petronas Gas lost 26 sen to RM21.20, Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM6.41, Petronas Dagangan added two sen to RM23.30 while SK Petro shed two sen to RM1.59.  Bumi Armada gained one sen to 73 sen.

Crude palm oil for third-month delivery fell RM34 to RM2,566 per tonne on profit taking. Ta Ann, which is involved in plantations and timber, fell the most, down 38 sen to RM4.12, PPB Group was down 22 sen to RM15.78, Batu Kawan 20 sen to RM17.90 and BLD Plantations 19 sen to RM8.50.

UMW fell 11 sen to RM5.66, Tenaga six sen lower at RM13.94 and MISC two sen to RM7.49.

Salutica, which made its debut on the Ace Market, rose 3.5 sen to 83.5 sen.

BAT was the top gainer, up RM1.02 to RM49.02, Ajinomoto 28 sen to RM12.38 and Carlsberg 10 sen to RM12.94.

As for telcos, Axiata and Digi added one sen each to RM5.38RM4.45 while Maxis was flat at RM5.43 and Telekom lost two sen to RM6.64.

Among the key regional markets,

Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.24% to 16,693.59;

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1.68% to 19,781.67;

CSI 300 fell 1.32% to 3,045.40;

Shanghai’s Composite Index lost 1.74% to 2,794.29;

Shenzhen Composite tumbled 2.5% to 1,769.37;

Hang Seng China Enterprise fell 1.8% to 8,274.51;

Taiwan’s Taiex shed 0.01% to 8,139.87; 

South Korea’s Kospi was down 0.86% to 6,002; and

Singapore’s Straits Times Index edged down 0.15% to 2,776.90.

Spot gold fell US$3.30 to US$1,275.65.