KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's blue chips closed lower on Wednesday, weighed down by losses in Petronas Gas and Genting Bhd
amid the more cautious broader market.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down one point or 0.05% to 1,837.04. Turnover was 3.36 billion shares valued at RM2.43bil. There were 412 gainers, 609 losers and 398 counters unchanged.
Most emerging Asian currencies climbed on Wednesday, with the yuan touching a more than two-year high, as the dollar extended its weak run against a basket of major currencies to a fresh three-year low, Reuters added.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six rival currencies, slipped below 90 for the first time since December 2014.
The ringgit rose 0.37% against the US dollar to 3.9130. However, late covering for other currencies saw the ringgit fall 0.56% against the pounbd sterling to 5.5137 and down 0.17% to the Singapore dollar. It lost 0.45% to the euro at 4.8305.
China stocks extended their climb on Wednesday, with the main indexes reaching new two-year peaks and one for start-up firms having its best day in five months.
Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index rose for seven days in a row to end at a new high, as strength in energy shares offset weakness in IT and finance play, Reuters reported.
Oil prices fell on Wednesday, weighed by data showing an increase in U.S. crude oil and gasoline inventories. US light crude oil slipped one cent to US$64.46 and Brent was down 24 cents to US$69.72.
Petronas Gas fell the most, down 46 sen to RM17.70 and erasing 1.62 points from the KLCI. Petronas Chemicals shed three sen to RM8 and Petronas Dagangan was flat at RM24.80.
Hengyuan fell 28 sen to RM13.92 and Petron flat at RM12.32.
Genting Bhd lost 16 sen to RM9.66 and erased 1.09 points but Genting Malaysia gained 11 sen tp RM5.58 and pushed the KLCI up 1.16 points. MISC shed one sen tp RM7.49 while Tenaga lost two sen to RM15.84.
Banks gained some strentgth ahead of the monetary policy committee meeting on Thursday where expectations are a 25 basis point hike in the overnight policy rate.
CIMB rose five sen to RM6.95 and pished the KLCI up 0.82 of a point, Maybank, Hong Leong Bank and RHB Bank added two sen each to RM9.91, RM18 and RM5.34 respectively. Public Bank was flat at RM20.96. HLFG fell 30 sen to RM17.80 despite an upbeat outlook on the financial services group.
Sime Darby Plantation added three sen to RM5.54, Sime Darby shed one sen to RM2.89 and Sime Property shed four sen to RM1.56.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery rose RM25 to RM2,519 per tonne. KL Kepong rose 14 sen to RM25.24, PPB Group two sen to RM17.40 but IOI Corp shed one sen to RM4.66.
However, Sungai Bagan added 21 sen to RM3.58, United Plantations 20 sen to RM28.50, Kluang 18 sen to RM4.38 and Kuchai 16 sen to RM2.29.
As for telcos, Telekom added one sen to RM6.01, Digi and Maxis shed one sen each to RMRM4.91 and RM6.05 while Axiata was down three sen to RM5.56.
Cement makers Lafarge lost 20 sen tpo RM5.90 and Tasek 16 sen to RM11.44.
DRB-Hicom gave up a chunk of the previous day's gains where it hit a 20-year high. It lost 15 sen to RM2.58.
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