KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia got off on a cautious footing early Wednesday as the FBM KLCI fell more than four points before halving part of the losses but Petronas Gas and Genting Malaysia slipped on profit taking.
At 9.26am, the FBM KLCI was down 2.89 points or 0.17% to 1,748.05. Turnover was 284.17 million shares valued at RM127.94mil. There were 195 gainers, 178 losers and 256 counters unchanged.
On the external front, Asian shares paused at decade peaks and the dollar dipped on Wednesday amid concerns Republican plans for major US tax cuts were running into headwinds even before the Senate releases its own version of the proposals, Reuters reported.
Investors were also keeping a wary eye on Saudi Arabia's sweeping anti-graft purge and an escalation of tensions with Iran, though oil prices did ease from their highs.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.05% having hit its highest since November 2007 on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.4%, though that followed a jump to its best close since 1992, Reuters added.
After reaching a two-and-a-half year top on Monday, Brent crude futures had pulled back a touch to US$63.69 a barrel. US crude was off 14 cents at US$57.06.
At Bursa Malaysia, Red Ideas made a firm debut on the LEAP Market, up 9.5 sen to 44.5 sen. It developed the private community platform Graaab JaGaApp – a mobile phone application targeted at residential and commercial communities.
F&N fell the most, down 84 sen to RM24.60 with 100 shares done. It closed off its financial year ended Sept 30, 2017 with a core net profit RM386.5mil, which met CIMB Equities Research and the market’s expectations at 99.5% and 99% of the respective full-year estimates.
Petronas Gas fell 38 sen to RM17.26, KL Kepong 18 sen lower at RM24.50, genting Malaysia seven sen lower at RM5.23 and IHH Healthcare six sen down at RM5.63.
Latitude Tree fell 14 sen to RM4.52, ICapital and Keck Seng seven sen down at RM2.72 and RM4.73. VS Industry lost six sen to RM3.08.
BAT was the top gainer, snapping its recent decline to jump 62 sen to RM37.78. Petronas Dagangan added 44 sen to RM22.90 and Hengyuan 12 sen to RM9.25.
Dutch Lady
added 38 sen to RM59.90, Hartalega and KESM 26 sen each to RM8.26 and RM17.96 and Kim Loong 10 sen to RM4.90.
