KUALA LUMPUR: Maybank led the FBM KLCI to a higher close on Wednesday in a late push but the broader market was weaker due to on-going anxieties over the Brexit and decline in crude oil prices below the key US$50 a barrel.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI was up 1.85 points or 0.11% to 1,627.96, snapping several days of losses due to foreign selling pressure. Turnover was 1.53 billion shares valued at RM1.448bil. There were 311 gainers, 409 losers and 373 stocks unchanged.
Emerging market stocks snapped a four day-losing streak on Wednesday, as investors anticipated a soothing message later from the US Federal Reserve to help settle the current outbreak of Brexit nerves, Reuters reported.
Most key Asian markets closed higher, with China among the gainers. China's markets shrugged off equity index provider MSCI's surprise decision not to add domestically-listed Chinese A-Shares to its widely followed benchmark EM index yet, the wire reported.
The ringgit weakened against the pound sterling but firmed up against the US dollar, Singapore dollar and euro. The riggit was at 4.0980 to the greenback from 4.1070 the previous day, advanced against the Singapore dollar to 3.0247 from 3.0292 and was stronger against the euro at 4.5984 from 4.6145.
Among the consumer stocks, Dutch Lady
rose RM1 to RM57.80, F&N 84 sen to RM25.32 but Carlsberg lost 28 sen to RM13.02. Berjaya Food was down 15 sen to RM1.65.
Maybank recovered most of Tuesday's losses, up 13 sen to RM8.13 and pushed the KLCI up 2.22 points. Insurer LPI, which is a major shareholder of Public Bank, added 18 sen to RM15.78.
However, all the other banks in the KLCI ended in the red. Hong Leong Bank, AmBank and Public Bank fell four sen each to RM12.96, RM4.31 and RM19.14 while CIMB shed two sen to RM4.34.
US light crude oil fell 66 cents to US$47.83 and Brent lost 83 cents to US$49. As for oil stocks, Petronas Gas fell 16 sen to RM21.40, Petronas Chemicals four sen to RM6.44 and Petronas Dagangan two sen to RM23.40 while SK Petro added two sen to RM1.52. Armada edged up one sen to 72 sen.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery fell RM26 to US$2,455 per tonne. IOI Corp rose four sen to RM4.33, KL Kepong lost two sen to RM23.02; PPB Group was flat at RM16.08 while KL Kepong was down two sen RM23.02.
Genting Bhd added 13 sen to RM8.17 and nudged the KLCI up 0.83 of a point, UMW four sen higher at RM5.32, but Genting Malaysia lost four sen to RM4.30 and Tenaga was down six sen to RM13.96.
As for telcos, Axiata and Telekom gained four sen each to RM5.59 and RM6.72, Digi three sen to RM4.59 and Maxis was flat at RM5.68.
Other gainers were Huat Lai, up 29 sen tp RM4.40, UliCorp 16 sen to RM6.28 and Scientex 12 sen to RM12.24.
Top Glove fell 11 sen to RM4.91 after a weaker set of earnings in the third quarter ended May 31, 2016. Its earnings fell 13.5% to RM62.45mil from RM72.27mil a year ago as it was impacted by the stronger ringgit and higher cost of raw materials but it expects to do better in the current quarter.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.38% to 15,919.58;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 0.39% to 20,467.52;
CSI 300 gained 1.31% to 3,116.37;
Shanghai’s Composite Index advanced 1.58% to 2,887.21;
Shenzhen Composite jumped 3.12% to 1,889.87;
Hang Seng China Enterprise edged up 0.31% to 8,609.59;
Taiwan’s Taiex gained 0.35% to 8,606.37;
South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.16% to 1,968.83 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Indexended up 0.21% to 2,774.
Spot gold lost US$3.41 to US$1,282.31.
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