KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia resumed its slide in Friday morning trade as Asian equity slid to yearly lows as the US trade war threatened to erode corporate profits.
While Public Bank managed to snap 10 consecutive sessions of losses, Tenaga Nasional and telco heavyweights weighed down the index.
The local benchmark index reached as low as 1,678 in the early session, it partially retraced losses to end 2.45 points lower at 1,698.87 at midday.
Turnover for the morning session was 944.01 million shares with a value of RM829.76mil. There were 379 decliners versus 275 gainers and 392 counters unchanged.
Tenaga Nasional dropped 30 sen to RM13.64, while Maxis slipped 10 sen to RM5.47 and Axiata slid eight sen to RM4.25. MISC dipped 13 sen to RM5.87.
In the plantations sector, Sime Darby Plantation
lost eight sen to RM5.27, KL Kepong slid 20 sen to RM23.58 and PPB dropped 16 sen to RM19.36.
Meanwhile, banks rebounded after having been pulled lower over the last two trading weeks.
Public Bank rose 36 sen to RM22.98, Maybank gained two sen to RM9.19, Hong Leong Bank put on 18 sen to RM18.08 and RHB added 15 sen to RM5.63. CIMB was unchanged at RM5.83.
Superlon Holdings saw heavy selling pressure following the announcement of its financial results, dropping 28 sen to RM1.24.
Carlsberg pared losses from the previous session, rising 30 sen to RM19.68 while Dutch Lady retraced yesterday's decline, rising 30 sen to RM67.50.
Oil prices were lifted on Friday amid uncertainty over whether Opec would decide to boost production at the meeting in Vienna later today.
WTI crude gained 82 cents to US$66.35 a barrel while Brent crude rolse 84 cents to US$73.89 a barrel.
In currencies, the ringgit was little changed against the greenback at 4.0110. It was also unmoved against the pound sterling at 5.3202 and Singapore dollar at 2.9547.
Win a prize this Mother's Day by subscribing to our annual plan now! T&C applies.
