Maybank, TNB weigh on KLCI

KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips closed lower on Monday amid a weaker broader market while the ringgit lost ground.

At 5pm, the FBM KLCI ended 1.49 points lower to 1,681.60. There were 314 gainers, 513 losers and 359 counters traded unchanged on the Bursa Malaysia. Volume stood at 1.486 billion units, worth RM1.43bil.

The ringgit was quoted at 4.0452 against the US dollar.

Laggards in the FBM KLCI component stocks were led by Maybank, which dragged the index down by 1.6571 points and Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB), which pulled down the index by 1.1213 points.

Maybank closed 10 sen lower to RM7.90 while TNB declined 12 sen to RM14.78.

Leading the top gainers, Dutch Lady rose 86 sen to RM58.56, Khind increased 43 sen to RM2.77 and DKSH gained accumulated 36 sen to RM5.82.

British American Tobacco and Nestle ended the day among the top losers, declining 62 sen to RM49.76 and 50 sen to RM78.50 respectively.

Spot gold was up 0.16% to US$1,319.05 per ounce.

Brent crude was last traded at US$49.17 per barrel while US crude traded at US$46.93 per barrel.

Among the key regional markets,

Japan’s Nikkei 225 up 2.3% to 16,737.49;

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index is down 0.38%to 22,821.34;

CSI 300 rose 0.02% to 3,307.78;

Taiwan’s Taiex shed 0.24% to 9,110.17;

South Korea’s Kospi eased 0.25% to 2,032.35 and

Singapore’s Straits Times Index declined 0.99% to 2,829.43.