Penny O&G stocks drive Bursa volume to 10 month high

KUALA LUMPUR: Heavy churning of penny oil and gas (O&G) stocks on Thursday drove the total market volume to the highest since May last year amid a firmer broader market though blue chips gave up some gains.

At 5pm, the KLCI was down 3.72 points or 0.22% to 1,674.52. Advancers beat decliners 491 to 400 while 387 counters were unchanged.

However, turnover surged to 4.77 billion shares valued at RM2.74bil, reflecting the low quality buying.

Nine out of the 10 most active stocks were O&G counters. Sino-Hua Ann jumped seven sen to 29 sen with 375 million shares done, Destini also added seven sen to 32.5 sen and Sapura Energy eked out one sen to 35 sen.

Carimin climbed 10.5 sen to 94 sen, Hibiscus five sen to RM1.07 and Perdana Petroleum rose three sen to 48 sen while Bumi Armada was flat at 19.5 sen. 

Among the KLCI stocks, Petronas Dagangan fell 18 sen to RM25.12, Petronas Chemical lost five sen to RM9.25, Petronas Gas fell two sen to RM17.68 but Dialog was flat at RM3.20.

US light crude oil rose six cents to US$58.32 and Brent added 10 cents to US$67.65.

As for banks, Maybank fell six sen to RM9.49 and erased 1.15 points, Public Bank four sen to RM24.44 and Hong Leong Bank two sen to RM20.74 while AmBank was unchanged RM4.51.  CIMB added two sen to RM5.47 and RHB Bank four sen higher at RM5.83.

Tenaga Nasional lost six sen to RM12.64 as the power giant neither confirmed nor denied that there would be a change in leadership of the state-owned electricity giant.

It said  any material statement on changes of the company’s leadership or matters that will affect the company will be issued officially at the appropriate time.

Genting lost three sen to RM6.98 and Sime Darby shed one sen to RM2.15 but GentingM added three sen to RM3.41. Press Metal gained seven sen to RM4.52.

As for telcos, Axiata lost six sen and erased nearly one point, Maxis four sen lower at RM5.29 and Digi two sen to RM4.53.

Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM24 to RM2,067 per tonne on concerns over slowing demand and rising production.

IOI Corp fell three sen to RM4.46, Sime Plantation two sen to RM5.07, PPB Group four sen to RM18.14 and KL Kepong four sen lower also to RM24.86. However, United Plantations advanced 18 sen to RM27.20 and Hap Seng Plantation 13 sen to RM1.93.

The ringgit weakened against the major currencies, falling 0.1% against the US dollar to 4.0910; tumbled 1.15% against the pound sterling to 5.4399 and gave up 0.25% against the the euro to 4.6297 and shed 0.07% versus the Singapore unit to 3.0176.