KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips ended the third quarter on a downbeat note on Friday as the FBM KLCI fell more than 17 points as market sentiment in Europe and Asia was buffetted by worries about Germany's Deutsche Bank and a confluence of negative news.
Hopes of a late window-dressing activities for the quarter ended Sept 30 evaporated amid the negative news while the ringgit lost ground against the major currencies.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down 17.09 points or 1.02% to 1,652.55 as it came under heavy pressure in the last 10 minutes of trade, tracking the weaker European bourses. The KLCI is down 2.36% year-to-date.
The broader market was weaker with decliners beating advancers 586 to 230 and 375 counters were unchanged. Turnover was 1.75 billion shares valued at RM2.18bil.
A bomb threat at midday saw the evacuation of the staff from Bursa Malaysia's headquarters at the Exchange Square. However, the police later declared it was a bomb hoax.
Shares of Bursa Malaysia fell 21 sen to RM8.82, the most in recent weeks.
Reuters reported an 8% slump in Deutsche Bank's already battered share price sent Europe into a fresh tailspin on Friday and left world equity markets sliding toward their worst week in three months.
Germany's biggest lender, Deutsche, hit by a string of fines for wrongdoing and a sharp fall in its revenues, saw its shares drop below 10 euros for the first time in its history in a brutal European open.
European stocks fell sharply at the open, racking up losses of between 0.7% to 2.04% while among the key Asian markets, they fell as much as 2.17%.
The ringgit weakened against the major currencies, faling to 4.1355 to the US dollar from 4.1233 the previous day, it fell to 5.3637 against the pound sterling from 5.3524 and lost ground against the Singapore dollar to 3.0311 from 3.0220. It slipped against the Euro to 4.6273 from 4.6197.
At Bursa, only two out of the 30 constituent stocks of the KLCI were in the positive zone, which were Petronas Dagangan and Hong Leong Bank while four were unchanged.
Axiata ended 20 sen down to RM5.22 and erased 3.04 points from the KLCI. Digi lost three sen to RM4.98, Maxis fell two sen to RM6.16 and Telekom Malaysia shed one sen to RM6.78.
Maybank fell 12 sen to RM7.50 and wiped out 2.04 points from the KLCI, CIMB and AmBank lost 11 sen each to RM4.71 and RM4.09 while RHB Bank was down 20 sen to RM4.65. Public Bank gave up six sen to RM19.82 but Hong Leong Bank added two sen to RM13.12.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery rose RM14 to RM2,630 per tonne. Sime Darby lost 12 sen to RM7.65, IOI Corp seven sen to RM4.45, PPB Group eight sen lower at RM16.18 and KL Kepong six sen down at RM23.98. Genting Plantations rose 34 sen to RM11.
US light crude oil fell 55 cents to US$47.28 and Brent lost 66 cents to US$48.58. Petronas Chemicals and Petronas Gas lost four sen each to RM6.65 and RM21.84 while Petronas Dagangan added four sen to RM23.50. SK Petro was flat at RM1.57.
Among the big cap stocks. Genting Bhd
fell 11 sen to RM7.93 and Genting Malaysia fell four sen to RM4.55. Tenaga lost six sen to RM14.30.
Teck Guan Perdana added 16 sen to RM1.94 after it responded to Bursa Securities' query that it was not aware of any reason for the share price surge.
Limited time offer:
Just RM5 per month.
