KUALA LUMPUR: Selling pressure picked up pace on Bursa Malaysia in the late afternoon on Thursday, with Sime Darby, AmBank and AirAsia among the casualties, in line with key Asian markets which were open.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI closed down 7.34 points or 0.44% to 1,650.51. Turnover was 1.74 billion shares valued at RM1.61bil. There were 347 gainers, 372 losers and 395 stocks unchanged.
Bloomberg reported scepticism over the European Central Bank's stimulus programme weighed on the European region's shares for a second day, taking their valuations to the lowest levels since January 2015 relative to global stocks.
While the ECB began buying corporate bonds on Wednesday, investors remain unconvinced the central bank's stimulus programme will succeed in reviving economic growth.
Despite the weaker equities market sentiment, the ringgit rebounded at 5pm. It was at 4.0450 to the US dollar from the previous close of 4.0623; firmed up against the pound sterling to 5.8529 from 5.9035 and was at 2.9941 to the Singapore dollar from 3.0026. Against the euro, it advanced to 4.5972 from 4.6180.
Crude oil prices retreated from the 2016 highs. US light crude oil fell 21 cents to US$51.02 and Brent 34 cents lower at US$52.17.
Petronas Daganagan and Petronas Gas fell 20 sen each to RM23.68 and RM21.76 while Petronas Chemicals shed four sen to RM6.66. SK Petro ended down two sen to RM1.72.
Bumi Armada
managed to handle the volatile trading, as it rose 1.5 sen to 75.5 sen. It was the most active with 87.70 million shares done.
As for banks, AmBank bore the brunt, falling 19 sen to RM4.39. LPI, the major shareholder of Public Bank, ended down 10 sen to RM15.60, Hong Leong Bank eight sen to RM13.12, Maybank two sen to RM8.25 and CIMB one sen to RM4.54.
Among the consumer stocks, Heneiken and Carlsberg lost 18 sen each to RM14.84 and RM13.20.
AirAsia fell 13 sen, the most in recent days, to RM2.53 with 52.22 million shares done. Its call warrants C-33 shed 1.5 sen to 29 sen. AirAsia X warrants lost 0.5 sen to 26.5 sen.
Press Metal climbed 15 sen to RM3.28 and its warrants, WC added 13 sen to RM2.10 but whether the gains could be sustained remains to be seen.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM8 to RM2,581 per tonne. United Plantations rose 42 sen to RM27. IOI Corp was flat at RM4.36, KL Kepong fell 14 sen to RM23.16 and PPB Group 38 sen to RM15.96. Sime Darby lost 15 sen to RM7.51 and erased 1.62 points from the KLCI.
SAM Engineering jumped 34 sen to RM7.41 after announcing its dividends.
As for telcos, Axiata rose eight sen to RM5.71 and added 1.2 points to the KLCI, Maxis gained three sen to RM5.78 and Digi one sen to RM4.70 but Telekom lost four sen to RM6.68.
Among the key regional markets which were open,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell0.97% to 16,668.41;
South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.41% to 8,715.48 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index was down 0.65% to 2,843.80.
Spot gold fell US$4.30 to US$1,258.50.
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