Small cap O&G counters see profit-taking, PetGas weighs

KUALA LUMPUR: The local bourse saw a negative result at midday, weighed down on a negative performance by Petronas Gas.

Asian markets rose again in the morning session as Wall Street's overnight closing boosted confidence in an earnings-driven rally. 

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 4.68 points to 1,823.95 points. There were 515 decliners versus 157 gainers and 611 counter unchanged. Turnover was 2.97 billion shares with a value of RM1.41bil. 

Leading the decline was Petronas Gas, which took off 64 sen to RM17.30. Genting Malaysia also weighed, falling eight sen to RM5.49. 

Meanwhile, among banking stocks, Hong Leong Bank dropped 20 sen to RM17.60 while Maybank dipped three sen to RM9.85. 

Among advancing counters, Nestle added 40 sen to RM107, Genting rose three sen to RM9.64 and Public Bank added two sen to RM20.90.

In utilities counters, Tenaga Nasional slid two sen to RM15.80 while Telekom Malaysia shaved three sen to RM6.08.

Small cap oil counters continued to see profit-taking following gains seen earlier in the week. Among stocks that dipped included UMW Oil and Gas, Sapura Energy, and Perisai Petroleum.

Parlo was in the spotlight on Thursday on news that it had been removed from Guidance Note 3 classificaiton by Bursa Securities. The counter gained 8.5 sen to 18.5 sen in morning trade.

Other gainers included Globetronic, rising 12 sen to RM6.61, and Zhulian, adding eight sen to RM2.

Oil prices saw yet more upside as US crude inventories dipped and Nigerian rebels 
threatened the country's petroleum supply, Reuters reported.

WTI crude rose 26 cents to US$64.23 a barrel while Brent crude gained 17 cents to US$69.55 a barrel

In forex markets, the ringgit slipped against major currencies. It weakened 0.15% against the US dollar at 3.9592, half a percent against the pound sterling at 5.4710 and 0.1% against the Singapore dollar at 2.9890.