KUALA LUMPUR: Technology-related and semiconductor stocks extended their losses on Friday while the rising North Korea-US tensions continued to take a toll on investor confidence – mirroring the downbeat key Asian markets.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI closed at the day's low of 1,766.96, down 10.81 points or 0.61% on broad selling of the index-linked stocks especially banks and telcos. The KLCI is at the lowest since Aug 1.
The broader market saw decliners beating advancers more than four to one with 718 losers to 165 gainers and 380 counters unchanged.
The ringgit fell 0.08% to the US dollar at 4.2952 and dipped 0.07% to the Singapore dollar at 3.1483 and slumpoed 0.36% to the euro at 5.0490. It edged up 0.02% to the pound sterling at 5.5722.
On the external front, South Korean shares ended at an 11-week nadir on Friday as anxious offshore investors sold stocks following President Donald Trump's fresh warning that North Korea not strike Guam or US allies, Reuters reported.
The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) closed down 1.7% at 2,319.71, its lowest closing level since May 24. For the week, Seoul shares fell 3.2%, the biggest weekly percentage loss since February 2016.
At Bursa, semicon stock MPI fell 44 sen – the most in recent weeks – to RM12.76 while KESM lost 16 sen to RM13.82.
DagangNext fell 2.5 sen to 45 sen with 37.22 million shares done, its warrants, WD fell one sen to 22 sen, Inari five sen to RM2.35 and MyEG four sen to RM1.97.
Consumer stocks also took a hit, with Ajinomoto down 40 sen to RM25.76, BAT 38 sen lower at RM43 and F&N 34 sen to RM24.40.
Maybank weighed on the KLCI, erasing 1.62 points from the KLCI when it lost nine sen to RM9.69, AmBank fell 10 sen to RM4.73, Hong Leong Bank eight sen to RM15.60, RHB Bank five sen to RM4.78, Public Bank two sen to RM20.58 but CIMB rose two sen to RM6.80.
Aeon Credit
lost 40 sen to RM12.12, HLFG was down 34 sen to RM16.50 and LPI 24 sen lower at RM17.76.
Oil prices fell by 1% to their lowest in more than a week after the International Energy Agency said market rebalancing was taking time despite strong demand growth because of weak Opec compliance with output cuts, Reuters reported. US light crude dopped 46 cents to US$48.13 and Brent was down 45 cents to US$51.45.
Petronas Dagangan fell eight sen to RM23.90, Petronas Chemicals one sen lower at RM7.02 and Petronas Gas was flat at RM18.78.
Refiners Petron and Hengyuan saw some bottom-fishing after the earlier selling pressure. Petron lost seven sen to RM8.80 – off the low of RM8.45 while Hengyuan was off six sen to RM7.71, off the intra-day low of RM7.38.
As for telcos, Digi lost 11 sen to RM4.68 and wiped out 1.46 points, Axiata was down seven sen to RM4.80, Maxis eight sen to RM5.70 and Telekom shed two sen to RM6.39.
IHH Healthcare fell nine sen to RM5.91 and erased 1.26 points, Genting Malaysia lost six sen to RM5.81, Genting Bhd four sen lower at RM9.66 and Tenaga two sen lower at RM14.20.
Crude palm oil for third moth delivery was unchanged at RM2,663 per tonne.
Among the plantations, PPB Group lost 20 sen to RM16.66, IOI Corp was down five sen to RM4.44, KL Kepong four sen to RM24.74 and Sime shed one sen to RM9.41.
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