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: Investors' hopes of a firmer close for Bursa Malaysia evaporated on Friday as late selling pressured by foreign funds on key stocks including Sime Plantation, Tenaga Nasional and IHH Healthcare sent the FBM KLCI below the key 1,600 level.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down 3.55 points or 0.22% to 1,598.32 – and its down 5.46% year-to-date. Turnover was lacklustre at 1.89 billion shares changing hands valued at RM1.55bil. There were 342 gainers, 449 losers and 358 counters unchanged.
Among the key Asian markets, Hong Kong stocks ended higher on Friday, but lost ground for a third week in a row, as the Huawei sanctions raised fears about Sino-US trade tensions morphing into a tech cold war, Reuters reported. The Hang Seng index rose 0.3%, to 27,353.93, while the China Enterprises Index gained 0.4%, to 10,445.54.
Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.16%, Shanghai Composite rose 0.02%, Taiwan's Taiex added 0.19%, South Korea's Kospi lost 0.69%, Singapore's STI added 0.29%.
Defensive consumer stocks were the top losers with Nestle down 80 sen to RM146.10, Carlsberg 40 sen to RM24.28, BAT 40 sen to RM33.02 and Dutch Lady
30 sen to RM63.60.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM7 to RM,2007 per tonne.
Sime Plantation fell 13 sen to RM4.53 and that erased 1.56 points from the KLCI but KL Kepong and PPB Group rose two sen each to RM24.18 and RM18.46 while IOI Corp advanced seven sen to RM4.26.
Tenaga lost 12 sen to RM11.54 and erased 1.19 points, IHH five sen lower at RM5.31, Press Metal six sen to RM4.27, GentingM four sen to RM3.09 and Genting five sen to RM6.28. However, Sime Darby was up five sen to RM2.20.
US light crude oil rebounded 73 cents to US$58.64 and Brent jumped 87 cents to US$68.63.
Petronas Chemical rebounded 12 sen to RM8.75 and added 1.68 points to the KLCI, Petronas Gas six sen to RM RM16.38 but Petronas Dagangan fell 12 sen to RM24.58. Lotte Chemical Titan gained 13 sen to RM3.07.
Among the banks, Maybank shed three sen to RM8.99, HL Bank 10 sen to RM19.20, RHB Bank five sen to RM5.65, CIMB flat to RM5.15 while Public Bank edged up two sen to RM22.52 and AmBank three sen to RM4.33.
As for telcos, Digi was up five sen to RM4.60 and Axiata four sen to RM4.45 but Maxis shed two sen to RM5.37.
Chip maker Unisem fell 16 sen to RM2.38 due to the trade war and the fallout on the semicon sector. SAM Engineering gave up part of the recent gains following its strong results, falling 15 sen to RM7.90. Scicom lost 13 sen to 84 sen.
However, MPI staged a mild recovery to climb seven sen to RM8.80 and Inari-WB seven sen to 86 sen.
Dayang eked out slight gains after the previous day's battering, climbing three sen to 92 sen.
The pound sterling jumped after British Prime Minister Theresa May said she was resigning with effect from June 7. The pound climbed 0.46% against the ringgit to 5.3175.
The ringgit rose 0.03% against the US dollar to 4.1920, fell 0.36% to the euro to 4.6872 and lost 0.27% against the Singapore dollar to 3.0430.
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