KUALA LUMPUR: Most key Asian markets ended Thursday in the red while at Bursa Malaysia, Maybank weighed on the FBM KLCI and the ringgit lost ground against the key currencies.
The slight rebound in crude oil prices was insufficient to lift investors' confidence at Bursa Malaysia.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down 4.89 points or 0.29% to 1,669.03. Turnover was 1.49 billion shares valued at RM1.61bil. There were 339 gainers, 396 losers and 406 counters unchanged.
Asian shares fell after disappointing earnings from technology giant Apple dragged on Wall Street, while oil prices were stable, Reuters reported. Southeast Asian shares were largely lower on Thursday, in line with broader Asia, with the Philippine index losing ground for a sixth session as President Rodrigo Duterte's threats to the United States spooked investors.
Oil edged above US$50 a barrel on Thursday as a further drop in US crude inventories countered investor doubts that OPEC will be able to implement a production cut, Reuters reported. Crude inventories posted an unexpected drop of 553,000 barrels last week.
Brent crude was up 22 cents at US$50.20 a barrel as of 0845 GMT, after falling in the last three days. US crude gained 10 cents to US$49.28.
The ringgit fell against the key currencies, giving up most of the previous days gains. It fell to 4.1855 against the US dollar from 4.1590 and weakened against the pound sterling to 5.1192 from 5.0829. It slipped against the Singapore dollar to 3.0067 from 2.9984 and eased to 4.5717 to the Euro from 4.5479.
At Bursa Malaysia, Maybank fell 13 sen to RM7.79 and erased 2.18 points from the KLCI, Public Bank shed four sen to RM19.76, CIMB eased one sen to RM5 but Hong Leong Bank added four sen to RM13.40.
Power giant Tenaga was flat at RM14.32 and after market, it announced that its fourth quarter earnings more than double.
Among the big caps, Genting Bhd
lost nine sen to RM7.76 and Genting Malaysia one sen lower at RM4.73. IHH Healthcare rose six sen to RM6.41.
Petronas Dagangan rose four sen to RM23.30, Petronas Chemicals added two sen to RM7, Petronas Gas was flat at RM21.92 while SapuraKencana fell two sen to RM1.59. Sumatec fell two sen to six sen after its associate defaulted on a loan repayment.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM7 to RM2,789 per tonne. KL Kepong was flat at RM24.20 after UK-based plantation company MP Evans Group Plc said it had more than half of the shareholders’ support in rejecting the unsolicited offer by KLK.
Sime Darby was flat at RM8.10, IOI Corp rose one sen to RM4.51 and PPB Group edged up two sen to RM16.
As for consumer stocks, F&N fell 28 sen to RM24.20, Ajinomoto 12 sen to RM13.52 and Dutch Lady lost 10 sen to RM59 but BAT added 18 sen to RM48.20.
Burn-in tester KESM lost 22 sen to RM9.85 as traders locked in gains from the recently rally.
Despite the volatile ringgit, Top Glove managed to rebound 12 sen to RM4.90 in active trade.
Melati Ehsan surged 29.5 sen to RM1.01 in active trade for the second day.
Spot gold jumped US$3.02 to US$1,270.12.
Limited time offer:
Just RM5 per month.
