KUALA LUMPUR: Time dotCom's move to dispose of its entire 68.72 million shares of Digi weighed on the telco's share price and the FBM KLCI on Friday, while fund selling of Axiata, Genting and IOI Corp pushed the index deeper into the red.
The KLCI lost ground in the afternoon session and at 5pm, the 30-stock index was down 4.97 points or 0.3% to 1,628.790. Turnover on the stock exchange was 1.71 billion shares valued at RM1.64bil. There were 365 gainers, 408 losers and 399 stocks unchanged.
On the external front, China stocks ended a tepid week higher on Friday, but the Shanghai Composite Index posted its fifth week of losses hurt by fading optimism over the country's growth prospects and concerns about rising US interest rates, Reuters reported.
Hong Kong shares followed most other Asian stock markets higher on Friday, but light volumes indicated caution as investors braced for a US interest rate hike possibly as early as next month.
The ringgit weakened against the US dollar to 4.0823 from the previous close of 4.0820. However, it rose against the pound sterling to 5.9530 from 5.9818, firmer against the Singapore dollar at 2.9589 from 2.9620 and crept up against the Euro to 4.5806 from 4.5817.
Market sentiment turned more cautious in the afternoon session as the on-going foreign fund selling weighed on the market.
On Thursday, foreign funds were net sellers at -RM296.4mil and local retailers net sellers at -RM17.3mil while local institutions were net buyers at RM313.7mil.
Digi fell 12 sen to RM4.45 and erased 1.6 points from the KLCI as sentiment was impacted by TdC's sale of the shares at RM4.47 each. However, TdC added 21 sen to RM7.35.
Axiata was down seven sen to RM5.41 and wiped out 1.06 points, Maxis shed one sen to RM5.44 and Telekom was flat at RM6.70.
Genting Bhd
fell 14 sen to RM8.51 and the fall in the share price erased 0.89 point from the KLCI. Genting Malaysia shed four sen to RM4.26. Tenaga was flat at RM13.98 but MISC advanced five sen to RM7.45.
As for banks, Hong Leong Bank eded down 12 sen to RM13.22, Maybank lsot four sen to RM8.44, AmBank was flat at RM4.36 but CIMB eked out a two sen gain to RM4.37 and Public Bank ended six sen higher at RM19.16.
Cement players were also among the top losers, with Cepco down 22 sen to RM1.56, Lafarge 21 sen to RM8.30 and Tasek 14 sen to RM14.86.
BAT fell the most, down RM1.70 to RM49.60 but other consumer stocks fared better.
Nestle added 38 sen to RM75.38 while F&N gained 12 sen to RM23.60.
Oil prices rose on Friday as turmoil in Nigeria, shale bankruptcies in the United States and a crisis in Venezuela all contributed to tightening supplies, the wire report said.
US light crude oil rose 15 cents to US$48.31 and Brent added 10 cents to US$48.91.
Petronas Gas rose 16 sen to RM21.46, Petronas Dagangan added eight sen to RM23.40 and Petronas Chemicals four sen to RM6.40 while SK Petro edged up two sen to RM1.62.
Meanwhile, Excel Force jumped 14 sen to RM1.86 after the founder of private equity firm Creador Sdn Bhd, Brahmal Vasudevan, had emerged with a 6.77% stake.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery fell RM4 to RM2,515 – the lowest since early March. PPB Group fell 20 sen to RM15.80, KL Kepong 10 sen to RM22.94, IOI Corp lost eight sen to RM4.18 but Sime Darby added two sen to RM7.45.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.54% to 16,736.35;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.8% to 19,852.20;
CSI 300 added 0.51% to 3,078.22;
Shanghai’s Composite Index added 0.66% to 2,825.48;
Shenzhen Composite gained 1.07% to 1,794.95;
Hang Seng China Enterprise added 0.73% to 8,303.58;
Taiwan’s Taiex rose 0.44% to 8,131.26;
South Korea’s Kospi edged up 0.05% to 1,947.67 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index ended the day up 0.87% to 2,763.82.
Spot gold rose US$2.13 to US$1,256.88.
Limited time offer:
Just RM5 per month.
