KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended Friday on a weak note as the FBM KLCI fell further away from the key 1,700 level due to foreign selling of Tenaga Nasional and other key stocks.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down 7.05 points or 0.42% to 1,679.90. Turnover was 2.61 billion shares valued at 2RM2.22bil. Decliners beat advancers five to three with 524 losers to 328 gainers and 382 counters unchanged.
Sentiment was further dented by the plunge in China stocks.
Shanghai stocks plunged 4.4% in their worst day in five months, as investors scrambled to take profit amid signs of tighter regulatory scrutiny after a recent market resurgence fuelled concerns of bubbles forming, Reuters reported. Shenzen Composite tumbled 3.79%.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index lost 1.91% and the CSI 300 3.97%. Japan's Nikkei 225 skidded 2.01%.
At Bursa, Tenaga fell 12 sen to RM12.70 and erased 1.18 points from the KLCI, Press Metal
13 sen to RM4.32, Genting seven sen tpo RM7.05 but GentingM added one sen to RM3.44.
CIMB lost six sen to RM5.39 and erased one point, Public Bank eased four sen to RM24.50, HL Bank six sen lower at RM21.24, AmBank and Maybank were flat at RM4.50 and RM9.53 but RHB Bank added eight sen to RM5.56.
US light crude oil fell 55 cents to US$56.11 and Breng was down 83 cents to US$65.47. Petronas Gas fell 16 sen to RM17.74, Petronas Dagangan was flat at RM26.50 and Petronas Chemical gained seven sen to RM9.25. Dialog shed two sen to RM3.18.
However, Dayang jumped 18 sen to RM1.58 with 92.95 million shares done.
As for consumer stocks, Dutch Lady and Nestle fell 30 sen each to RM63.90 and RM147.809 and Carlsberg 16 sen to RM25.84.
Cement company Tasek fell 22 sen to RM4.95 while Lafarge shed 10 sen to RM2.25.
CIMB Equities Research said Lafarge foresees unlikely recovery in domestic cement demand and prices in FY19F due to the downturn in jobs and an oversupplied market. It plans to rationalise its opex in FY19F to be in line with the industry.
Prestariang, whose short selling was suspended, fell 1.5 sen to 52.5 sen in active trade.
Among the telcos, Maxis rose three sen to RM5.36, Digi was flat at Axiata shed three sen to RM4.16.
CIMB Research is neutral on the Malaysian telco sector and switched its telco top pick to Digi from Axiata, which it downgraded to Hold after a 24% increase in its share price in the past three months.
As for plantations, Sime Plantation and KL Kepong lost four sen each to RM5.10 and RM24.78 but IOI Corp gained two sen to RM4.51 and PPB Group eight sen higher at RM18.50.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM15 to RM2,120 per tonne.
The ringgit weakened 0.07% against the US dollar to 4.0898 but firmed up 0.52% to the pound sterling to 5.3560. It jumped 0.85% to 4.5847 versus the euro and advanced 0.14% to the Singapore unit at 3.0078.
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