Bears on the prowl on Bursa Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed lower on Tuesday in the absence of stronger catalysts to spur buying interest as investors held back despite the recovery in crude oil prices and a firmer ringgit.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down 6.03 points or 0.35% to 1,706.55 despite the earlier rally led by Petronas-linked stocks.
Notable was that turnover had risen to 2.89 billion shares valued at RM2.35bil. However, the broader market was weaker with decliners beating advancers 552 to 364 while 363 counters were unchanged.
Key Southeast Asian stock markets of Singapore, Thailand and Jakarta also closed lower.
The ringgit managed to gather strength to close firmer against the key currencies, climbing to 4.4567 against the US dollar from 4.4587 while the one-month non-deliverable forward was between 4.4687 and 4.4762.
The ringgit rose to 5.5383 against the pound sterling from 5.5537 and advanced against the Singapore dollar to 3.1355 from 3.1447. It edged higher against the Euro to 4.7087 from 4.7358.
Reuters reported Hong Kong stocks suffered their biggest one-day loss in a month on Tuesday, hurt by index heavyweight HSBC Holdings PLC after it posted a bigger-than-expected drop in its 2016 profit.
Meanwhile, oil rose on Tuesday after exchange data showed hedge funds placing record bets on North Sea and US crude as Opec production cuts tightened supply, the wire report said. US light crude oil rose 53 cents to US$53.93 and Brent added 50 cents to US$56.68.
Petron Malaysia
fell 23 sen to RM4.47 while small cap oil and gas stock Enra lost 22 sen to RM2.40. Petronas Chemicals lost 15 sen to RM7.33 and erased 2.03 points from the KLCI. Petronas Gas shed four sen to RM20.60 and Peytronas Dagangan was flat at RM24.24.
Bumi Armada picked up pace on the back of fresh positive news, adding 0.5 sen to 75.5 sen with 48.5 million shares done.
Among the the consumer stocks, BAT fell RM1.78 to RM49.30, Dutch Lady was down 26 sen to RM54.44 but F&N added 30 sen to RM22.98 and Carlsberg added 28 sen to RM2.40.
Genting Malaysia fell 18 sen to RM5.20 and wiped out 1.81 points from the KLCI and Genting Bhd lost 11 sen to RM8.89. Tenaga rose four sen to RM13.58.
As for financial stocks, Aeon Credit fell 22 sen to RM15.50 but HLFG rose 20 sen to RM15.20 on stronger financial results.
Hong Leong Bank rose four sen to RM13.50, AmBank two sen to RM4.60 while RHB Bank and Public Bank were flat at RM5.14 and RM20.04, CIMB shed one sen to RM5.08 and Maybank two sen lower at RM8.40.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery fell RM5 to RM2,826 per tonne.
KL Kepong fell the most among the plantations, down 24 sen to RM24.24 and Innoprise lost 16 sen to RM1.19. IOI Corp was down 12 sen to RM4.51 and this was enough to erase 1.31 points from the KLCI, PPB Group fell six sen to RM16.34 while Sime Darby lost three sen to RM9.17. Batu Kawan rose 20 sen to RM19.48.
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