KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's stock market closed in the red on Friday in a trade-shortened week, in line with the weaker key Asian markets as the post-Brexit rally fizzled out while the ringgit fell against the major currencies.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down 6.17 points or 0.37% to 1,644.54. Turnover was 1.23 billion shares valued at RM1.44bil. There were 305 gainers, 387 losers and 331 counters unchanged.
Hong Kong stocks fell, tracking losses in Shanghai shares, on fears of further weakness in the yuan and worries that Britain's decision to leave the European Union could destabilise one of China's biggest export markets, Reuters reported.
The ringgit fell against the key currencies, sliding to 4.0345 to the US dollar from 4.0138 the previous day and lost ground to the pound sterling to 5.2180 from 5.2117. It weakened against the Singapore dollar to 2.9922 from 2.9795 and fell against the Euro to 4.4682 from 4.4477.
All key Asian markets ended in the red, with Japan leading the declines.
US light crude oil rose 27 cents to US$45.41 and Brent advanced 26 cents to US$46.66. Petronas Gas fell 46 sen to RM22.20 and erased 1.55 points from the KLCI. Petronas Dagangan lost 10 sen to RM23.44, Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM6.56 and SK Petro lost five sen RM1.39.
TH Heavy hit an all-time low of 6.5 sen. By the end of the day, it was down 2.5 sen to 70 sen after it faced more winding-up suits.
Malakoff saw its newly listed call warrants Malakoff-CO tumbled 19.5 sen to 7.5 sen due to the weak market sentiment.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell by triple digits or RM102 to RM2,253 per tonne. It and earlier hit an intra-day low of RM2,223 per tonne, the biggest intra-day drop since October 2012 , tracking the tumble of soybean oil and soymeal prices.
Heavyweight Sime Darby, which has interests in plantations and property, fell 13 sen to RM7.41 and wiped out 1.40 points from the KLCI.
PPB Group fell the most among plantation stocks as CPO futures tumbled and it ended the say down 28 sen to RM16.22. IOI Corp lost nine sen to RM4.28, KL Kepong two sen yo RM23.20 and
However, United Plantations added 38 sen to RM27.
UMW fell 17 sen to RM5.38, Genting Malaysia 10 sen to RM4.29, MISC seven sen to RM7.30 and Genting Bhd
six sen to RM7.97.
AirAsia rose two sen to RM2.59 following a positive outlook by analysts while AirAsia X lost one sen to 38 sen in active trade.
As for telcos, Axiata fell four sen to RM5.50, Digi two sen to RM4.75, Telekom one sen lower at RM6.78 but Maxis rose five sen to RM5.93,
Among the banks and finance stocks, HLFG was the top performer, up 42 sen to RM15.30 and adding 0.82 of a point to the KLCI. CIMB rose four sen to RM4.39, Hong Leong Bank two sen to RM13.18 while Maybank was flat at RM8.20while AmBank lsot five sen to RM4.36 and Public Bank and RHB Bank four sen each to RM19.34 and RM5.11.
Consumer stocks were among the top gainers, Dutch Lady surged RM2.84 to a record high of RM61.30 but with 9,800 shares done, Carlsberg added 48 sen to RM14.20, BAT 24 sen to RM54.42 and F&N was flat at RM26, off the record high of RM26.90 earlier.
Poultry companies Lay Hong rose 16 sen to RM8.76 and Huat Lai 14 sen to RM4.39.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.11% to 15,106.98;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 0.69% to 20,564.17;
CSI 300 fell 0.55% to 3,192.28;
Shanghai’s Composite Index fell 0.95% to 2,988.09;
Shenzhen Composite lost 0.14% to 2,012.29;
Hang Seng China Enterprise was down 0.77% to 8,543.79;
South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.56% to 1,963.10 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index saw 0.59% erased to end at 2,845.33.
Spot gold lost US$3.87 to US$1,356.58.
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