KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s blue chips ended Monday on a weak note, with the FBM KLCI down nearly 1%, dragged down by losses in banks, oil and gas stocks including Petronas counters.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI was down 16.15 points or 0.96% to 1,736.62. Turnover was 1.468 billion shares valued at RM1.411bil. There were 271 gainers, 502 losers and 257 stocks unchanged.
At Bursa Malaysia, market sentiment was dented by worries about the impact of the new Base Rate implemented from the start of 2015, weaker key regional markets and also the prolonged plunge in the oil prices.
The ringgit weakened considerably against the US dollar to 3.5338 from the previous close of 3.5163.
Public Bank led the KLCI stocks lower, falling 40 sen to RM17.82 and erasing 2.68 points from the KLCI. Maybank fell 12 sen to RM9 and wiped out 1.93 points while CIMB was down nine sen to RM5.46 and RHB Cap shed eight sen to RM7.45. However, Hong Leong Bank rose 28 sen to RM14.26.
US light crude oil fell 92 cents to US$51.77 and Brent was down 95 cents to US$55.47.
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