KLCI cracks below key 1,650 level as banks sold

Will Maybank follow suit to raise its base rates?

KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips closed at the day's low on Wednesday on sustained selling of banking stocks including Public Bank, Maybank, RHB Bank and CIMB, pushing the FBM KLCI below the key 1,650 level.

At 5pm, the KLCI was down 11.73 points or 0.71% to 1,648.50. Turnover was 2.09 billion shares valued at RM1.60bil. There were 398 gainers, 416 losers and 332 counters unchanged.

Key Asian market notched losses of more than 2% while crude oil prices managed to eke out some gains in volatile trade, putting pressure on oil and gas stocks.  

The slide in crude oil hit the ringgit as it slumped to 4.0535 against the US dollar from 4.0332 and it was at 5.4115 to the pound sterling from 5.3604. It weakened to 3.0211 against the Singapore dollar from 3.0189 and slumped to 4.5387 against the Euro from 4.5365.

Among the banks, Public Bank fell 22 sen to RM19.58 and erased 1.45 points from the KLCI while Maybank's 12 sen slide to RM7.86 erased 2.05 points. RHB Bank fell 14 sen to RM4.80, Hong Leong Bank 12 sen to RM13.14, AmBank nine sen to RM4.33 and CIMB five sen to RM4.36.

Among the consumer stocks. BAT fell the most, down RM1.06 to RM49.50 while F&N was down 24 sen to RM26.10.

US light crude oil rose 30 cents to US$39.81 and Brent added 31 cents to US$42.11. Petronas Dagangan added six sen to RM23.34 but Petronas Gas lost two sen to RM22.08 and Petronas Chemicals shed five sen to RM6.54. SK Petro was flat at RM1.40.

Crude palm oil for third-month delivery jumped RM61 to RM2,399, the highest in a month on tighter supplies.

United Plantations fell 42 sen to RM26.50 but with just 100 shares done, PPB Group and Batu Kawan lost 24 sen each to RM15.82 and RM17.76 and TAHPS 23 sen to RM6.02, KL Kepong four sen to RM23.10 and IOI Corp one sen to RM4.24.Heavyweight Sime Darby lost nine sen to RM7.51.

Among the KLCI stocks, MAHB was down 17 sen to RM6, Genting Bhd eight sen to RM8.10 but MISC rose nine sen to RM7.50.

As for telcos, Axiata lost four sen to RM5.65, Telekom three sen to RM6.79 but Digi rose one sen to RM4.96 and Maxis gained three sen to RM6.09.

Among the key regional markets,

Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.88% to 16,083.11;

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 1.76% to 21,739.12;

CSI 300 rose 0.14% to 3,193.51;

Shanghai’s Composite Index added 0.24% to 2,978.46;

Shenzhen Composite gainewd 0.42% to 1,934.82;

Hang Seng China Enterprise lost 1.65% to 8,978.33;

Taiwan’s Taiex fell 0.74% to 9,001.71;

South Korea’s Kospi 1.2% lower at 1,994.79 while 

Singapore’s Straits Times Index ended down 1.02% to 2,827.58.

Spot gold rose 68 cents to US$1,364.25.