KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips fell more than 10 points in late Friday afternoon trade, bogged down by weaker manufacturing data, a bomb threat and mostly due to the weaker key Asian markets.
At 3.38pm, the KLCI was down 10.34 points or 0.62% to 1,659.30. Turnover was 1.24 billion shares valued at RM1.11bil. The broader market weaken considerably with decliners beating advancers three to one or 588 losers to 197 gainers and 335 stocks unchanged.
Hong Kong stocks slumped, trimming the benchmark index’s best quarterly performance in seven years, as concern about the health of Germany’s biggest lender spurred declines in financial companies. The Hang Seng Index dropped 2.1% as of 3.23pm, paring its gain since the end of June to 12%, Bloomberg reported.
Meanwhile, Malaysia's manufacturing Purchasing Managers' index (PMI) contracted for the 18th straight month in September. HSBC Global Research said the latest data suggest that manufacturing conditions in Malaysia are still weak, and that a recovery any time soon remains elusive.
Trading at Bursa Malaysia went on as usual in the afternoon session on Friday after the building at Exchange Square was evacuated after a bomb threat at midday.
BAT fell the most, down 74 sen to RM49.84 while Globetronics lost 16 sen to RM3.65 and RHB Bank was down 13 sen to RM4.72.
However, Apex Healthcare
was the top gainer, up 44 sen to RM4.70, Lay Hong gained 36 sen to RM10.60 and Carlsberg 30 sen higher at RM14.84.
Teck Guan Perdana added 19 sen to RM1.97 after it responded to Bursa Securities' query that it was not aware of any reason for the share price surge.
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