For the month, the FBM KLCI is down 3.18% and year-to-date, it is down 8.02%.
KUALA LUMPUR: Selling pressure picked up pace on Bursa Malaysia on Monday as losses in CIMB, Sime Darby and Petronas Chemicals pushed the FBM KLCI into the red, tracking the losses in key Asian markets.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down 4.51 points or 0.27% to 1,693.84. Turnover was 2.90 billion shares valued at RM2.16bil. Decliners beat advancers two to one with 643 losers to 297 gainers while 300 counters were unchanged.
The ringgit firmed up against the major currencies, rising to 4.4385 to the US dollar from 4.4405 and surged 1.18% against the pound sterling to 5.5064 from 5.5720. It climbed against the Singapore dollar to 3.1554 from 3.1630 and advanced against the Euro to 4.6949 from 4.7021.
Key Asian markets closed lower ahead of US President Donald Trump's expected policy speech to Congress on Tuesday. It is expected to include some details of his infrastructure spending and tax plans, but some market participants worry that a lack of fresh direction could disappoint investors and weigh on the dollar, Reuters reported.
As for the banks and finance stocks, HLFG lost 16 sen to RM15.10 while CIMB fell 14 sen to RM4.94 and erased 2.1 points from the KLCI. Public Bank fell 11 sen to RM7.30, Hong Leong Bank four sen to RM13.56, RHB Bank three sen to RM4.90 but Maybank added two sen to RM8.62.
Sime Darby fell 13 sen to RM9.07, erasing 1.5 points from the KLCI after it announced more details to split the heavyweight into three core businesses and list them. However, it posted a stronger set of financial results in the second half ended Dec 31, 2016.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery fell RM39 to RM2,767 per tonne. Far East fell 35 sen to RM8.55, but PPB Group rose 22 sen to RM16.52, KL Kepong added 12 sen to RM24.20 and IOI Corp one sen higher at RM4.70.
US light crude oil rose 45 cents to US$54.44 and Brent gained 60 cents to US$56.59. Petronas Dagangan added 16 sen to RM24.48, Petronas Gas fell 26 sen to RM20.28 and Petrols Chemicals 11 sen lower at RM7.30. Petron Malaysia
rose 16 sen to RM6.25.
Among the consumer stocks, BAT fell 80 sen to RM48.50, Kawan Food lost 37 sen to RM4.04, Dutch Lady was down 30 sen to RM54.38.
Profit taking also pushed chip maker MPI and SAM Engineering into the red. MPI lost 25 sen to RM9.35 and SAM 20 sen lower at RM5.60.
As for telcos, Axiata rose seven sen to RM4.36, Maxis added three sen to RM6.32, Digi and Telekom were flat at RM5.02 and RM6.12.
Tenaga rose four sen to RM13.54, Genting Bhd sis sen to RM9.17 but Genting Malaysia shed three sen to RM5.25.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.91% to 19,107.47;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 0.17% to 23,925.05;
CSI 300 lost 0.8% to 3,446.22;
Shanghai’s Composite Index ended down 0.76% to 3,228.66;
Hang Seng China Enterprise was down 0.84% to 10,330.85;
Taiwan’s Taiex shed 0.19% to 9,750.47;
South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.41% to 2,085.52 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index was down 0.27% to 3,108.62.
Spot gold fell US$2.16 to 1,255.03.
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