KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips dipped early Tuesday with Petronas Gas and UMW among the top decliners while JAKS Resources came under heavy selling pressure after its FY16 financial results.
At 9.37am, the KLCI was down 0.12 of a point or 0.01% to 1,693.72. Turnover was 376.02 million shares valued at RM196.83mil. There were 173 gainers, 311 losers and 284 counters unchanged.
The US dollar was steady early on Tuesday, enjoying support after US President Donald Trump flagged a big boost in government stimulus, and sought a "historic" increase in military spending, Reuters reported.
Trump will ask the US Congress to boost Pentagon spending in the next fiscal year by US$54bil in his first budget proposal, a White House budget official said on Monday.
Maybank Investment Bank Research said the KLCI had on Monday pared early gains to settle in red, falling 4.51 points to close at 1,693.84. Negative sentiment affected the broader market with losers outpacing gainers by 643 to 297. Trading volume was 2.90 billion shares worth RM2.14bil.
“The benchmark index is now below the 20-day EMA line thus likely to test the following support levels, which are pegged at 1,685 and 1,667,” said the research house.
JAKS Resources fell 17 sen to RM1.06 with 19.26 million shares done after posting a weaker-than-expected results for FY16.
However, Affin Hwang Capital Research is maintaining its Buy call with a lower target price of RM1.70 (RM2), as the fundamentals of the company remains unchanged, despite the disappointing headline profit after tax and minority interest of RM7000,000 for FY16.
“The weaker than expected results was mainly due to several one-offs, and JAKS’s inability to recognised any EPC contract revenue in the 4QFY16,” it said.
UMW Oil and Gas fell five sen to 63.5 sen in active trade after making provisions of nearly RM900mil in FY16.
MSC fell 38 sen to RM3.73, Petronas Gas 30 sen lower at RM19.98 and UMW 20 sen to RM5.38. Aeon fell 17 sen to RM2.33 on profit taking.
BAT rebounded to climb 42 sen to RM48.92, Oriental Holdings added 20 sen to RM6.65.
Petronas Dagangan rose 10 sen to RM24.58, Sime Darby nine sen to RM9.16 and KL Kepong eight sen to RM24.28.
Limited time offer:
Just RM5 per month.
