KUALA LUMPUR: Banks, Tenaga Nasional and Petronas Gas weighed on the FBM KLCI at midday on Thursday, in line with the key Asian markets, as investors stayed on the sidelines in the absence of strong leads from institutional players.
The surge on Bursa Malaysia on Wednesday, spurred by Bank Negara's unexpected cut in interest rates by 25 basis points, seemed to have fizzled out – at least for a while.
At noon, the FBM KLCI was down 3.65 points or 0.22% to 1,656.74. Turnover was 796.51 million shares valued at RM719.57mil. There were 285 gainers, 366 losers and 329 counters unchanged.
The ringgit weakened against the euro but advanced against the US dollar, pound sterling and the Singapore dollar.
Against the euro, it slipped to 4.3972 from 4.3845. However, it was firmer against the US$ to 3.9583 from 3.9655; it climbed to 5.2745 against the pound from 5.2592 while it was firmer against the Singapore dollar at 2.9375 from 2.9422.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery fell RM2 to RM2,220 per tonne. Among the plantations, PPB Group fell 20 sen to RM16.48, KL Kepong 12 sen lower at RM23.12, IOI Corp three sen to RM4.36 and Sime Darby flat at RM7.64.
US light crude oil rose 61 cents to US$45.36 and Brent advanced 53 cents to US$46.79.
As for oil and gas stocks, Petronas Gas fell the most, down 16 sen to RM22.04 and erased 0.52 of a point from the KLCI. Bumi Armada
was flat at 74.5 sen. Petronas Dagangan lost two sen to RM23.48 and Petronas Chemicals one sen lower at RM6.59.
Among the properties, UOA Development fell the most among the property companies, givig up most of the previous day's gains. It fell 14 sen to RM2.35. UEM Sunrise rose two sen to RM1.11 in active trade.
Panasonic Malaysia which hit a record high on Wednesday fell the most n Bursa Malaysia, down 22 sen to RM32.42.
Hiap Tek shares and the warrants were among the most active. Its shares rose 2.5 sen to 24.5 sen, Hiap Tek-WA 3.5 sen to eight sen and Hiap Tek-WB gained one sen to nine sen.
Tenaga lost four sen to RM14.28 but Genting Bhd rose 16 sen to RM8.56 and Genting Malaysia two sen to RM4.38.
Dutch Lady was the top gainer, up 88 sen to RM60.88 while BAT gained 24 sen to RM5.24, Ajinomoto 22 sen to RM13.40 and Heineken 20 sen to RM17.
Among the finance and bank stocks, HLFG was the top gainer, up 14 sen to RM15.14 while Hong Leong Bank was flat at RM13.24. However, CIMB lost seven sen to RM4.25, Maybank and Public Bank fell four sen each to RM8.08 and RM19.36.
China stocks were lower on Thursday after trade data showing weak commodity imports hurt mining, metals and industrial companies, while Hong Kong share markets were subdued, Reuters reported.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.69% to 16,344.03;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index edged up 0.05% to 21,332.36;
CSI 300 fell 0.34% to 3,271.83;
Shanghai’s Composite Index fell 0.42% to 3,047.86;
Shenzhen Composite shed 0.08% to 2,040.01;
Hang Seng China Enterprise shed 0.1% to 8,899.76;
Taiwan’s Taiex rose 0.02% to 8,859.34;
South Korea’s Kospi was flat at 2,005.63; and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index was down 0.12% to 2,907.05.
Spot gold fell US$4.55 to US$1,338.09.
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