Genting slumped 15 sen to RM6.80 and erased 1.01 points while GentingM was down three sen to RM3.25 following the recent corporate news which were viewed as negative by investors.
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's stock market extended its losses on Monday but came off the early as positive signals showed that the battering by foreign funds since the May 9 General Election may have subsided.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down 1.21 points or 0.07% to 1,755.17 weighed down by losses in power giant Tenaga Nasional and Sime Plantation which erased nearly three points.
Turnover was 2.77 billion shares valued at RM2.82bil. The broader market was mixed with 477 gainers, 444 losers and 380 counters unchanged.
Analysts viewed the selling on Bursa Malaysia could have been overdone and they expected the market to settle at a firmer base. They pointed to the recovery in some of the battered counters including tolled road concessionaires and construction plays.
According to Credit Suisse there was RM5.6bil worth of foreign selling since the 14th General Election 14 (mostly passive money) and year-to-date, net foreign outflows amounted to RM1.9bil. This was reflected in the 6% drop in the KLCI since GE 14.
Credit Suisse said it was looking out for newsflow on that could re-rate the market such as : (1) details on plans to reduce the RM1 trillion government debt, (2) more clarity on infrastructure projects reviewed, (3) assurance that toll road concessionaires will be fairly treated. Any business-friendly policies would also help investor sentiment.
On the currency front, the ringgit climbed 0.23% against the US dollar to 3.9700 and edged up 0.05% against the Singapore dollar to 2.9715. However, it fell 0.32% against the pound sterling to 5.3045 and eased 0.01% to the euro at 4.6461.
MyEG closed at an all-time low of 68.5 sen, down 17.5 sen with 219.33 million shares done on worries about the impact from the termination of its contract with the Immigration Department to carry out the government’s rehiring (registration of illegal foreign workers) programme by end-June.
However, MyEG had stated it already stopped new registrations for the rehiring programme at end-December 2017 and was given until end-June to process all incomplete cases.
Among the consumer stocks, Dutch Lady
lost 70 sen to RM66.94, Nestle 50 sen lower at RM146.40 but BAT was the top gainer, up RM1.62 to RM34.20.
Kretam was among the top losers, down 16 sen to 62 sen due to a delay in Hap Seng Plantations' proposed purchase of a controlling stake in the plantation company via two corporate exercises valued at a combined RM1.18bil.
Tenaga Nasional erased 1.63 points from the KLCI when it lost 16 sen to RM14.34. Press Metal fell 11 sen to RM4.46 but Genting rose five sen to RM8.95, IHH climbed 16 sen to RM3.77 and MISC added 18 sen to RM6.37.
Among the banks, AmBank and RHB Bank each rose 16 sen to RM3.77 and RM5.43, Public Bank two sen higher at RM24.02, CIMB and Hong Leong Bank were flat at RM6.10 and RM19 but Maybank lost six sen to RM9.98 and wiped out 1.17 points.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM27 to RM2,412 per tonne. Sime Plantation lost 10 sen to RM5.25 and wiped out 1.22 points, Sime Darby was flat at RM2.45 and Sime Property two sen higher to RM1.18.
IOI Corp and PPB Group shed two sen each to RM4.60 and RM19.80 while KL Kepong edged up two sen to RM24.88. Batu Kawan fell 18 sen to RM17.90 and Ta Ann 16 sen lower at RM2.82.
As for semicon and IT stocks, MPI rose 50 sen to RM10.50 while Vitrox added 21 sen to RM6.06.
Oil prices fell with US light crude down 13 sen to US$65.68 and Brent fell 27 cents to US$76.52.
Petronas Chemicals added 12 sen to RM8.25 and lifted the KLCI up 1.72 points, Petronas Gas two sen higher at RM17.74 but Petronas Dagangan lost eight sen to RM24.74.
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