KLCI easier on blue-chip selling

Bears on the prowl on Bursa Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: Tracking a lower overnight Wall Street yesterday, Bursa Malaysia ended the day on negative side, with the FBM KLCI dropping a 6.37 points to 1,748.30.

Although the key index regained some losses, decliners outnumbered winners by 606 to 328 while 343 counters unchanged on Wednesday.

The market traded within a range of 9.90 points between an intra-day high of 1748.30 and a low of 1738.40 during the session. The local bourse opens down 6.92 points, or 0.39% to 1,747.75. Volume fell to 3.16 billion units worth RM2.75bil.

Dealers said the performance of our local bourse was in tandem with our regional peers with blue chips among the main drags, as investor sentiment was dented by the fall in key regional markets.

Laggards in the FBM KLCI component stocks were Genting Malaysia, which dragged the index down by 1.7561 points. Petronas Chemicals (PetChem) has a weightage of 5.70 dragged the index down by 1.3144 points while Maybank dragged the index down by 1.0048 points.

Genting Malaysia closed 18 sen lower to RM5.50, PetChem declined 10 sen to RM7.48 and Maybank lost 6 sen to RM8.94.

Leading the top gainers, Panasonic Manufacturing added RM1 to RM33, MPI rose 34 sen to RM10.96 while F&N accumulated 20 sen to RM24.50.

Nestle and Scientex ended the day among the top losers, declining RM2.40 to RM78.20 and 22 sen to RM7.25 respectively.

Meanwhile, Bernama reported that the ringgit closed lower against the US dollar today on lack of buying interest, taking the cue from the easier Bursa Saham Malaysia.

At 6pm, the local unit stood at 4.4250/4300 against the greenback compared with 4.4230/4280 on Tuesday.

A dealer said the ringgit’s fall was in tandem with other Asian currencies which retreated after Asian stocks posted their biggest drop in two weeks today.

European shares fell to a two-week low on Wednesday, extending losses from the previous session as weighed down by basic resources stocks and banks.

France’s CAC 40 fell 0.7% to 4,967.65, Germany’s DAX 30 index down 0.68% at 11,880.79 and the UK’s FTSE 100 fell 0.93% to 7,309.36.

Elsewhere in the region, Asian shares were lower with Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average falling 2.13%, the Shanghai Composite Index eased 0.5%, South Korea’s Kospi declined 0.46% and the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong was down 1.11%.