KLCI dips at midday, Genting, Maxis down

Bears on the prowl on Bursa Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips ended Thursday's morning session on a lacklustre note on mild selling of Genting Bhd and Maxis while the ringgit lost ground against the US dollar.

At 12.30pm, the KLCI was down 1.45 points or 0.09% to 1,663.57. Turnover was 1.01 billion shares valued at RM626.91mil. Decliners led advancers 346 to 279 while 353 counters unchanged.

Asian shares slipped on Thursday and the dollar rebounded after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen signalled that the U.S. central bank is poised to pursue a path of interest rate hikes, Reuters reported.

With the US economy close to full employment and inflation headed toward the Fed's 2 percent goal, it "makes sense" for the US central bank to gradually lift interest rates, Yellen said on  Wednesday, it reported.
 
The ringgit fell 0.15% against the US dollar to 4.4510 from 4.4443 the previous day, but advanced against the pound sterling to 5.4634 from 5.4715 and it edged up against the Singapore dollar to 3.1182 from 3.1269. It rose against the Euro to 4.7352 from 4.7504.

Among the banks, RHB Bank fell five sen to RM4.92, AmBank lost four sen to RM4.43, CIMB and Public Bank were flat at RM4.82 and RM20.08 while Maybank rose two sen to RM8.23.

Genting fell four sen to RM8.29 and Genting Malaysia was flat at RM4.74. 

As for telcos, Axiata and Digi added one sen each to RM4.67 and RM4.90 but Maxis fell four sen to RM6.01 and Telekom slipped seven sen to RM5.99.

Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM5 to RM3,145 per tonne. PPB Group fell 26 sen to RM16, Batu Kawan 14 sen lower at RM18.70 and Sime Darby shed one sen to RM8.51 but IOI Corp rose one sen to RM4.50. 

Rapid Synergy shares and its warrants were among the top losers. Its warrants fell 29 sen to RM4.30 and shares 25 sen lower at RM5.50 in thin trade.

WCT fell 13 sen to RM1.75 with 6.11 million shares done. The property-construction company’s move to place out up to 10% of its existing paid-up share capital, or approximately 125 million shares was likely to be priced below its net asset value. 

Crude oil prices rose with US light crude oil up 41 cents to US$51.49 and Brent added 44 cents to US$54.36. Petronas Dagangan fell 10 sen to RM23.30, Petronas Chemicals dipped one sen to RM7.19 but Petronas Gas edged up two sen to RM20.14.

Shell Refining rose 13 sen to RM2.65 after the board of Shell Refining Company (Federation of Malaysia) Bhd and the independent adviser have advised the minority shareholders to reject the takeover offer from  Malaysia Hengyuan International Ltd. The offer was at RM1.92 a share.

Consumer stocks were among the gainers, with Nestle adding 32 sen to RM75.54, Dutch Lady rose 10 sen to RM55.10 while Heineken added eight sen to RM16. 

Spot gold price fell US$1.06 to US$1,203.24.