Genting lower at midday but KLCI holds above key 1,750

For the month, the FBM KLCI is down 3.18% and year-to-date, it is down 8.02%.

KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips were marginally lower at midday on Tuesday, weighed down by profit taking on Genting Bhd and Hong Leong Bank, reflecting the cautious sentiment across most key Asian markets.

At 12.30pm, the KLCI was down 0.8 point or 0.05% to 1,754.39. Turnover was 1.10 billion shares valued at RM895.69mil. There were 277 gainers, 326 losers and 490 counters unchanged.

Southeast Asian stock markets were subdued on Tuesday, tracking tepid Asian shares and Wall Street overnight as the passage of a US healthcare bill grew doubtful, raising concerns over the rest of President Donald Trump’s ambitious economic agenda, Reuters reported.

Asian shares stepped back from more than two-year highs on Tuesday and the dollar extended losses, as two Republican senators opposed legislation to dismantle and replace the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, leaving it without enough votes to pass.

The ringgit rose 0.08% to 4.2845 against the US dollar but fel against the other key currencies. It was down 0.05% to the pound sterling at 5.6079 and lost 0.09% to the Singapore dollar at 3.1318 and skidded 0.61% to the euro at 4.9386.

Genting Bhd fell 11 sen to RM9.43 and erased 0.69 of a point from the KLCI, Genting Malaysia lost three sen to RM5.73, Tenaga lost two sen to RM14.16 but IHH Healthcare edged up one sen to RM5.93.

Crude palm oil for third-month delivery fell RM1 to RM2,536 per tonne. KL Kepong and PPB Group fell six sen each to RM24.64 and RM4.48, IOI Corp two sen lower at RM4.48 but Sime Darby rose one sen to RM9.54.

US light crude oil rose seven cents to US$46.09 and Brent added nine cents to US$48.51. Petronas Chemicals lost two sen to RM6.87, Petronas Gas was flat at RM18.82 and Petronas Dagangan added two sen to RM23.70.  UMW-OG fell 0.5 sen to 36.5 sen in very active trade.

Among the banks, Hong Leong Bank fell 12 sen to RM15.78 on profit taking. Maybank Investment Bank Research is positive on the bank’s fundamentals and it is raising the earnings forecasts for the financial years 2018 and 2019 (FY18/FY19) by 2.5% and 3.1%.

CIMB rose six sen to RM6.34, Public Bank and AmBank were flat at RM20.36 and RM5.10, Maybank and RHB Bank shed one sen each to RM9.60 and RM5.05.

Iskandar Waterfront City saw active trade, up 24 sen to RM1.48 with 59.3 million shares. There was speculation it may return to participate in the Bandar Malaysia project, Bloomberg quoted Ang Kok Heng, chief investment officer at Phillip Capital. 

China plans to cut off some funding for billionaire Wang Jianlin’s Dalian Wanda Group Co after concluding the conglomerate breached restrictions for overseas investments, said people familiar with the decision, Bloomberg reported.

Ekovest added eight sen to RM1.13 on its participation in the River of Life project in KL. It had on Tuesday launched the KL River City project which aims to rejuvenate and transform Northern Kuala Lumpur into a world class destination.

Other gainers were Ajinomoto, up 38 sen to RM25.38, Dutch Lady 24 sen to RM58.34 and Apollo 17 sen up to RM5.37.

MPI added 12 sen to RM13.66 and Vitrox 11 sen up to RM7.93.

Among the key regional markets,

Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.55% to 20,007.63;

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index shed 0.16% to 26,427.27;

CSI 300 dropped 0.83% to 3,632.99;

Shanghai’s Composite Index  lost 0.62% to 3,156.76;

Hang Seng China Enterprise was down 0.5% to 10,782.90;

Taiwan’s Taiex edged up 0.02% to 10,459.48;

South Korea’s Kospi dipped 0.08% to 2,423.04 and

Singapore’s Straits Times Index edged up 0.04% to 3,299.55.

Spot gold gained US$3.48 to US41,237.59 per troy ounce.