KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia and key Asian markets except China fell at midday on Tuesday as investors sought safe haven assets after North Korea fired a missile over Japan while the ringgit weakened against the key currencies.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 8.09 points or 0.46% to 1,761.40. Turnover fell to 690.51 million shares valued at RM758.74mil. There were 158 gainers, 469 losers and 436 counters unchanged.
Gold jumped US$6.54 to US$1,316.67 per troy ounce as investors sought safer assets.
Hong Kong stocks fell on Tuesday in line with losses in other major global markets after North Korea fired a missile over Japan, escalating geo-political tensions, Reuters reported.
Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.56%, Hang Seng Index lost 0.36%, Taiwan Taiex 0.45% lower, South Korea's Kospi 0.7% down andf Singapore Straits Times 0.35% down/
But equity markets in China, an economic ally of North Korea, remained around 20-month highs, bolstered by robust earnings reports and expectations of further restructuring of state-owned firms which could lead to more mergers and acquisitions, the wire report said. Shanghai's Composite Index rose 0.06%.
The ringgit fell against the key currencies, sliding 0.01% to the US dollar at 4.2680; fell 0.34% versus the pound sterling at 5.5259, shed 0.07% to the Singapore dollar at 3.1515 and slumped 0.38% to the euro at 5.1109.
Maybank fell 11 sent to RM9.49 and erased 1.91 points from the KLCI, Hong Leong lost 20 sen to RM15.20, Ambank seven sen lower at RM4.36, CIMB six sen to RM6.72, RHB Bank five sen to RM5 and Public Bank was flat at RM20.58.
Sime Darby lost nine sen to RM9 and erased one point from the KLCI.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM20 to RM2,718 per tonne. PPB Group lost four sen to RM16.66, IOI Corp shed two sen to RM4.51, KL Kepong rose four sen to RM24.46.
Among the heavyweights, Genting Malaysia rebounded 16 sen to RMRM5.79 and pushed the KLCI up 1.56 points after two straight days of losses after it was downgraded. Now, it was Genting Bhd
to come under selling pressure, falling 13 sen to RM9.64.
Crude oil prices bounced back a tad on the back of supply disruptions in Colombia and Libya, a day after U.S. crude futures dropped on worries that refinery shutdowns caused by the flooding could boost inventory.
Crude oil prices climbed, with US light crude climbing 21 cents to US$46.78 and Brent gaining 18 cents to US$52.07.
Petronas Gas lost 16 sen to RM18.48, Petronas Dagangan 10 sen lower at RM24 and Petronas Chemicals six sen lower at RM7.13. Hengyuan rebounded, up 23 sen to RM7.26 and Petron 13 sen higher at RM8.42.
UMW fell 20 sen to RM5.55. CIMB Equities Research is maintaining its Reduce rating on UMW Holdings with a higher RM4.90 target price (TP) of RM4.90 compared with its earlier RM4.38.
Mitrajaya fell 19 sen to RM1.14 and Seacera 18.5 sen lower at 95.5 sen.
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