KLCI lower at midday, Maybank leads decline

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia tracked global markets lower in the morning session as Wall Street dipped overnight and trade fears continued to plague investor sentiment.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI shed 5.5 points to 1,807.26. Trading volume was RM1.5bil shares valued at RM1.12bil. There were 284 gainers versus 465 decliners and 374 counters unchanged. 

Public Bank rose in morning trade, adding 14 sen to RM25 while other banking heavyweights stepped back. Maybank lost four sen to RM9.95, CIMB slipped three sen to RM6.07 and Hong Leong Bank dropped six sen to RM20.54.

Tenaga Nasional picked up four sen to RM15.76 while Petronas Chemicals edged one sen higher to RM9.50.

Sime Darby Plantation lost six sen to RM5.20, Nestle trimmed 30 sen to RM147.10, Genting shed nine sen to RM8.30 and Petronas Dagangan dipped 24 sen to RM26.76.

On the broader market, MI Equipment jumped 15 sen to RM2.68, Ideal grew 13 sen to RM1.66 and Genetec rose 11 sen to RM1.73.

On the losing end, Supermax lost 19 sen to RM3.25, Dutch Lady dropped 14 sen to RM66.20 and Carlsber slipped 10 sen to RM20.20.

Oil prices fell on Wednesday as a tropical storm over the US Gulf coast was not as strong as expected. WTI crude lost 49 cents to US$69.38 a barrel and Brent crude fell 34 cent sto US$77.83 a barrel.

In currencies, the ringgit fell 0.1% against the US dollar at 4.1438, 0.3% against the pound sterling at 5.3288 and marginally against the Singapore dollar at 3.0100.