KUALA LUMPUR: Fund buying of Tenaga Nasional helped shore up the FBM KLCI on Thursday amid the selling pressure piling on Press Metal
, Petronas Chemicals and Maxis as investors sought clarity about the looming general election.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down 1.52 points or 0.08% to 1,856.35. Turnover was 1.89 billion shares valued at RM2.09bil. There were 330 gainers, 546 losers and 384 counters unchanged.
Reuters reported China warned the United States on Thursday not to open Pandora's Box and spark a flurry of protectionist practices across the globe, even as Beijing pointed to US goods that it could target in a deepening Sino-US trade dispute.
Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.61%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 0.24%, Shanghai Compositie Index rose 1.22% and Singapore's STI added 1.34% but Taiwan's Taiex fell 0.18%.
The ringgit weakened against the strengthening US dollar, down 0.12% to 3.8692. However, the local unit rose 0.74% against the poun sterling toi 5.4315, climbe d0.59% against the euro to 4.7608 and eked out a gain of 0.12% to the Singapore dollar to 2.9485.
Bitcoin fell US$393 to US$7,513.
At Bursa, BAT fell the most, down 64 sen to RM26.30 while Apollo lost 24 sen to RM3.79 but Nestle gained RM1.30 to RM151, Dutch Lady up RM1 to RM67 and Heineken 80 sen higher at RM21.
Tenaga rose 36 sen to a record RM16.16 and powered the KLCI up 3.67 points.
Press Metal fell 23 sen to RM4.54 and erased 1.6 points from the index, in line with selling pressure on steel players like Ann Joo due to the US trade trariffs on steel and aluminum imports. Ann Joo lost
As for oil and gas stocks, Petronas Chemicals fell 10 sen to RM8.15 and erased 1.44 points, Petronas Dagangan six sen to RM24.70 and Petronas Gas two sen lower at RM17.82.
Among the telcos, Telekom lost 12 sen to RM5.21, Maxis fell nine sen to RM5.68, Axiata and Digi two sen lower at RM5.46 and RM5.50.
Genting Bhd ended 15 sen lower at RM8.70, Genting Malaysia two sen lower at RM4.85.
As for banks, RHB Bank fell eight sen to RM5.17, AmBank six sen to RM3.88, CIMB one sen to RM7.16 whule Public Bank added four sen to RM24, Maybank two sen to RM10.52 and Hong Leong Bank 12 sen higher at RM18.70.
Iskandar Waterfront City Bhd (IWC) fell 17 sen to RM1.12 after Ekovest failed to get shareholders support for the takeover of IWC at its EGM on Thursday.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM11 to RM2,407 per tonne. Batu Kawan was down 20 sen to RM18.18, IOI Corp two sen lower at RM4.78 but KL Kepong gained two sen to RM25.58.
Sime Plantation lost two sen to RM5.50, Sime Darby was flat at RM2.62 and Sime Property added two sen to RM1.42.
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