KUALA LUMPUR: Selling of Tenaga Nasional, Genting Malaysia and Petronas Gas erased nearly seven points from the FBM KLCI at the close of trade on Thursday.
Investor sentiment was weak despite the firmer key Asian markets as local institutions have been the net sellers on Bursa Malaysia.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down 7.03 points or 0.38% to 1,821.60. Turnover was 4.60 billion shares valued at RM3.28bil. The broader market was weaker with decliners beating advancers near three to one or 764 losers to 274 gainers and 372 counters unchanged.
Asian stocks struck record highs on Thursday, with a rally by Wall Street supporting bullish investor sentiment, while the dollar pulled back from three-year lows as comments by European Central Bank officials tempered the euro's recent rally, Reuters reported.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.2% higher after rising as much as 0.4% to a fresh record peak.
Japan's Nikkei reached its highest level since late 1991 earlier before ending down 0.4%. Shanghai shares rose 0.9%, buoyed by data showing China's economy grew 6.8% in the October-December quarter from a year earlier.
The ringgit lost ground against the US dollar, dipping 0.05% to 3.9555 and losing 0.48% to the pound sterling to 5.4727 while it eased 0.09% to the eurp at 4.8303. However, the Singapore fell 0.13% to the ringgit to 2.9899.
Bitcoin was trading at US$11,241.
At Bursa, Tenaga fell 22 sen to RM15.60 and erased 2.21 points from the KLCI while Genting Malaysia lost 21 sen to RM5.36 and wiped out 2.21 points. Genting Bhd
rose four sen to RM9.65.
US light crude oiledged up one cent to US$63.98 and Brent shed eight cents to US$69.30.
Petronas Gas slid 62 sen to RM17.32 and erased 2.17 points, extending its fall for the third day. Petronas Dagangan fell four sen to RM24.66 and Petronas Chemicals unchanged at RM8.17.
Refiners were among the top losers with Hengyuan losing RM1.80 to RM12 while Petron sliding 68 sen to RM11.28.
Among the banks, Hong Leong Bank fell 28 sen to RM17.52, AmBank 13 sen to RM4.62, Maybank two sen to RM9.86 while Public Bank was flat at RM20.88 but CIMB surprised on the upside, up three sen to RM6.80.
Sime Darby and Sime Plantation added four sen each to RM2.76 and RM5.54 while Sime Property also gained four sen to RM1.59.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery ros RM6 to RM2.493 per tonne. IOI Corp, PPB Group and KL Kepong were flat at RM4.66, RM17.40 and RM25.20.
Penny oil and gas stocks fell in active trade, with UMW-OG down four sen to 34.5 sen, Sumatec 0.5 sen to 9.5 sec, Sapura Energy five sen to 76 sen and Perisai one sen to 6.5 sen.
As for consumer stocks, BAT fell 212 sen to RM32.38 but Nestle added 20 sen to RM106.80 and Dutch Lady 14 sen to RM61.
Glove makers fare well with Top Glove up 13 sen to RM9.13, Hartalega 10 sen to RM11.20 and Kossan nine sen to RM8.35.
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