KLCI ends 2pts down as Maybank weigh, RM near 6 to pound

KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips closed lower on Thursday, dragged down by Maybank after it was downgraded by Deutsche Bank, while the ringgit slid against the major currencies and was nearly 6.0 to the pound sterling.

At 5pm, the FBM KLCI was down 1.96 points or 0.12% to 1,633.76. Turnover was 1.39 billion shares valued at RM1.80bil. There were 355 gainers, 415 losers and 377 counters unchanged.

Bloomberg said the ringgit slid to the weakest level in two months after minutes of the Federal Reserve’s April meeting boosted speculation US policy makers will raise interest rates as soon as next month.

The ringgit ended 4.0820 to the US dollar from 4.0505 the previous day. It slipped against the pound to 5.9818 from 5.8408 – the weakest since Feb 22. It lost ground to the Singapore dollar to 2.9620 from 2.9413 and against the euro, it was at 4.5817 versus 4,5618.

“The major driver that makes the ringgit low is the strengthened expectation of the Fed hiking rates in June,” Masashi Murata, a vice president at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. in Tokyo was quoted by Bloomberg as saying. “US Treasury yields rose after the FOMC minutes too, which depressed the ringgit.”  

At Bursa Malaysia, Maybank fell 18 sen to RM8.48 with 23.7 million shares done and erased 2.96 points from the KLCI. Public Bank and Hong Leong Bank fell six sen each to RM19.10 and RM13.34, AmBank two sen lower at RM4.36 but RHB Cap added five sen to RM5.96 and CIMB three sen to RM4.35.

Aturmaju, which hit limit down, was queried by Bursa Securities. It closed down 39 sen to 92 sen.

Oil fell below US$48 a barrel on Thursday, pressured by a stronger dollar and as a surprise increase in US inventories served as a reminder that supply remains ample despite unplanned outages, wire reports said. US light crude fell 95 cents to US$47.24 and Brent tumbled US$1.15 to US$47.78.

Petronas Chemicals lost four sen to RM6.36, Petronas Dagangan was flat at RM23.66 while Petronas Gas added 10 sen to RM21.30. SK Petro gained two sen to RM1.60.

Other key blue chips which had a bad day were Genting Bhd, down 25 sen to RM8.65, UMW 14 sen to RM5.48 while Tenaga shed six sen to RM13.98. MISC added nine sen to RM7.40.

Crude palm oil for third-month delivery fell RM43 to RM2,518 per tonne, the lowest since March 4.Ta Ann lost 12 sen to RM3.89, United Plantations 10 sen to RM26.90 while KL Kepong four sen to RM23.04, IOI Corp added eight sen to RM4.26 and Sime Darby seven sen to RM7.43 while PPB Group 20 sen higher at RM16.

Among the consumer stocks, BAT gained RM2.22 to RM51.33, Carlsberg added 58 sen to RM12.70, Ajinomoto 42 sen to RM12.96 and Nestle added 40 sen to RM75. Heineken aded 18 sen to RM14.80.

Among the key regional markets,

Japan’s Nikkei 225 eked out a 0.01% gain to 16,646.66;

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.67% to 19,694.33;

CSI 300 she d0.18% to 3,062.50;

Shanghai’s Composite Index shed 0.02% to 2,806.91;

Shenzhen Composite climbed 0.56% to 1,775.88;

Hang Seng China Enterprise fell 0.7% to 8,243.20;

Taiwan’s Taiex was down 0.78% to 8,095.98;

South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.1% to 1,946.78 and

Singapore’s Straits Times Index slid 1.33% to 2,740.11.

Spot gold fell US$3.84 to US$1,254.66.