Late selling pulls rug under KLCI as it slips toward 1,800 (Update)

KUALA LUMPUR: Late fund selling of heavyweights Tenaga Nasional and Sime Darby and other key index linked stocks pushed the FBM KLCI down nearly 16 points to its lowest since March 23 as sentiment was dented by the weak key Asian markets.

At 5pm, the KLCI was down 15.87 points or 0.87% to 1,805.10 but when compared with the key Asian markets, the losses in percentage terms was much lower due to local fund support. 

Turnover on Bursa Malaysia was 1.55 billion shares valued at RM1.97bil. There were 319 gainers, 437 losers and 360 counters unchanged.

Power giant Tenaga fell 22 sen to RM13.98 – the lowest since Feb 13 -- and erased 2.16 points from the KLCI. Its market capitalisation was reduced by RM1.24bil to RM78.897bil.

Sime Darby was down 18 sen to RM8.84 and the losses wiped put 1.95 points from the KLCI.

Among the finance stocks, HLFG fell 48 sen to RM16.26, Hong Leong Bank eight sen to RM14, CIMB seven sen to RM5.88 while Maybank and AmBank slid six sen each to RM9.15 and RM6.34. Public Bank lost four sen to RM19.32 but RHB Cap bucked the trend to add three sen to close at RM7.80.

Oil and gas stocks were mixed despite that US light crude oil rose 28 cents to US$61.21 and Brent added 51 cents to US$68.28. Petronas Gas up 14 sen to RM22.88 and Petronas Chemicals two sen higher at RM5.85 wgile SK Petro lost three sen to RM2.78.

Plantations were mostly lower as the crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM16 to RM2,167 per tonne on expectations of higher output.

PPB Group down 44 sen to RM15.16, IOI Corp six sen to RM4.22 while FGV was flat at RM2.09 but KL Kepong rose six sen to RM22.06.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell for the sixth consecutive session on Thursday after Morgan Stanley - usually bullish on China - downgraded the MSCI China Index for the first time in 7-1/2 years, citing valuation concerns.

Morgan Stanley on Thursday demoted MSCI China - which captures mid- and large-cap Chinese companies listed in Hong Kong - to equal-weight from overweight, the first downgrade of the index since November 2008.

The Hang Seng index fell 1.3%, to 27,289.97, while the China Enterprises Index lost 1.6%, to 13,768.47.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 1.23% to 19,291.99, Shanghai Composite Index lost 2.77% to 4,112.21 and South Korea’s Kospi 0.65% lower at 2,091.

Taiwan’s Taiex fell 1.16% to 9,704.11 and Singapore’s Straits Times Index was down 0.78% to 3,432.78.