KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended in the morning trading session in red on Thursday while oil and gas (O&G) counters were in focus.
At 12.30pm, the 30-stock index closed at 1,772.39, down 1.19 points. The market traded within a range of 5.29 points between an intra-day high of 1,776.31 and a low of 1,771.02 during the session. The local bourse opened 0.89 of-a-point lower at 1,772.69 this morning.
Broader market sentiment continued to be weak, with 439 losers outpacing 278 gainers and 372 counters which traded unchanged. About 2.07 billion shares, valued at RM1.17bil, changed hands.
US markets ended mixed overnight with the Dow and S&P inched higher to record highs led by financial counters after the Federal Reserve hinted another rate hike this year and it would start unwinding its balance sheet next month.
Earlier, European stocks were also mixed as UK retail sales beat expectation.
“Following the mixed performance in the US and Europe, the FBM KLCI could remain pressured and hover below the resistance of 1,800 points,” JF Apex said.
AllianceDBS Research said the analysis of overall market action on Wednesday revealed that buying power was weaker than selling pressure.
As such, the research house said the benchmark FBM KLCI would likely trade below the 1,770.44 level on Thursday.
Among the actively traded O&G stocks were Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd
, UMW Oil and Gas, KNM Group, Sumatec, Alam Maritim and Reach Energy,
Analysts said historically, a strong hurricane season often presents potential short-term returns in crude oil.
In a recent report, Maybank Investment Bank Research said 2Q17 results for the O&G sector were largely in line and expected the momentum to pick up in 2H17.
“Oil price hovering at US$50 per barrel and Petronas raising its dividend payment commitment for FY17 are some of the key positives pointing towards an improved outlook.
“We reiterate our view that the sector has bottomed. Our average oil price estimate for 2017 is US$51.80 per barrel. We remain positive on the sector. Our key buys are Dialog, Yinson, Sapura Energyand Wah Seong,” Maybank said.
Hibiscus settled lower at midday owing to apparent profit-taking activity. The counter fell 3.5 sen, or 5.38% to 61.5 sen. UMW O&G rose 0.5 sen to 35.5 sen, Sumatec fell 0.5 sen to 6 sen while Alam Maritim gained 1 sen to 22.5 sen.
Meanwhile, Lotte Chemical Titan Holding Bhd (LCTitan) saw its share price slide in early trade after a fire damaged one of its factories in Johor. Its share price, however, has recovered and closed one sen, or 0.19% higher at midday to RM5.30.
CIMB Group was one of the laggards among the KLCI component stocks as it fell six sen to RM6.37 dragging the index down by 2.2346 points. Petronas Chemicals shed one sen to RM7.30, pushing the index lower by 0.9216. Sime Darby fell three sen to RM9.16, nudging the index down by 0.5596.
Elsewhere in the region, Asian shares closed mostly higher with Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.4%, the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.21%, South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.03% and the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong was up 0.1%.
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