Bears on the prowl on Bursa Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips ended Wednesday morning on a downbeat note on seling of Genting Malaysia, Petronas Chemicals and IHH Healthcare, mirroring the cautious Asian markets after the overnight fall on Wall Street. The ringgit was weaker.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 5.54 points or 0.31% to 1,774.91. Turnover was 740.96 million shares valued at RM767.38mil. There were 239 gainers, 344 losers and 457 counters unchanged.
The ringgit fell against the key currencies. It lost 0.25% against the US dollar to 4.2987 and fell 0.83% to the pound sterling at 5.5099 and slipped 0.22% to the Singapore dollar at 3.1010. It skidded 1.13% to the euro at 4.8783.
Reuters reported Southeast Asian stock markets fell on Wednesday, tracking broader Asia and Wall Street after a vote on US healthcare reforms was delayed, raising fresh questions about President Donald Trump's domestic agenda.
However, China's share market was steady on Wednesday morning, with an index tracking the country's top 50 stocks poised to scale its highest level in nearly two years thanks to stepped up foreign demand for Chinese blue-chips since the MSCI inclusion last week.
But Hong Kong stocks sagged, as sentiment was hurt by a stumble on Wall Street overnight and more losses on the city's second board following the previous session's nearly 10% tumble, it said.
At Bursa, Genting Malaysia fell 16 sen to RM5.67 and erased 1.56 points from the KLCI while Genting Bhd
was down nine sen to RM9.63 and wipining out 0.56 of a point.
Hospital operator and owner IHH was down five sen to RM5.93 and the loss erased 0.67 of a point, Tenaga Nasional two sen down to RM14.14 and MISC one sen lower at RM7.39. MAHB gained 30 sen to RM9.
US light crude oil fell 19 cents to US$44.05 and Brent lost 11 cents to US$46.54. Petronas Chemicals fell six sen to RM7.09 and erased 0.79 of a point, Petronas Dagangan also six sen lower at RM24.16 and Petronas Gas was flat at RM18.90.
Bumi Armada rose 3.5 sen to 75.5 sen in active trade but Sapura Energy fell one sen to RM1.56.
Refiner Hengyuan rose 20 sen to RM5.29 and Petron 13 sen higher at RM7.20.
As for consumer stocks, Ajinomoto fell 76 sen to RM24.02, BAT 30 sen to RM43.70. However, Dutch Lady rose 28 sen to RM58.40 and Heineken added 24 sen to RM18.20 while F&N gained 20 sen to RM25.20.
Tech related stock PMB Tech fell 13 sen to RM2.37.
Among the banks, Hong Leong was the top gainer, up 38 sen to RM15.92 while Maybank added three sen to RM9.63 and CIMB rose one sen to RM6.69. AmBank and RHB Bank fell seven sen each to RM4.91 and RM5.06. Public Bank lost six sen to RM5.06.
Telcos were mixed, Telekom rose two sen to RM6.64 and Digi two sen higher at RM5.01 but Maxis fell three sen to RM5.61 and Axiata four sen lower at RM4.90.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery rose RM21 to RM2,463 per tonne. The rebound did not help plantation stocks much due to the cautious outlook.
PPB Group lost eight sen to RM16.76, IOI Corp fell three sen to RM4.45 while KL Kepong and Sime Darby were flat at RM24.80 and RM9.61.
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