KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips extended their losses on Wednesday, tracking the weaker key regional markets, with Public Bank, Maybank and Axiata bearing the brunt of the selling as the FBM KLCI skidded more than 10 points.
The KLCI started the day in the red and weakened further towards the ater part of the trading day. However, despite the weaker blue chips performance, the broader market was firmer.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down 10.44 points or 0.62% to 1,686.51. Turnover was 2.14 billion shares valued at RM2.05bil. There were 449 gainers to 383 losers and 314 counters unchanged.
With banks being the proxy to the economy and also the weaker crude oil prices, some foreign funds were seen reducing their shareholdings in banks including Public Bank despite its strong earnings.
Public Bank closed down 22 sen to RM18.18 and erased 1.43 points from the KLCI. Maybank was down eight sen to RM8.47 and shed 1.28 points, CIMB lost three sen to RM4.84 and RHB Capital three sen to RM6.23.
US light crude oil rose 42 cents to US$43.62 and Brent gained 40 cents to US$47.21. However, Petronas Daganagan lost 34 sen to RM22.76, Petroinas Gas 14 sen to RM23.08 and Petronas Chemicals four sen to RM6.37. SapuraKencana was down three sen to RM2.11.
As for telcos, Axiata fell 12 sen to RM6.15 and wiped out 1.75 points from the KLCI. Maxis fell five sen to RM6.65, DiGi three sen to RM5.27 and TM two sen to RM6.74.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery rose just RM8 to RM2,330 per tonne. KL Kepong fell eight sen to RM23.12, PPB Group six sen to RM15.80 and IOI Corp two sen to RM4.33. Sime Darby was flat at RM8.60.
Seremban Engineering, which hit limit-up on Wednesday, shed some of the gains, down 11.5 sen to 64.5 sen.
Success Transformer announced to Bursa Malaysia at midday that it did not have plans to dispose of its stake Seremban Engineering, contrary to a news report.
BAT fell the most, down RM1.50 to RM62.70 and surrendering all of Tuesday’s gains.
XOX was among the most active, up 4.5 sen to 26.5 sen. It was recently queried by Bursa Securities over the unusual market activity.
BIG jumped 16 sen to 57.5 sen in the absence of any developments.
The ringgit weakened against the US dollar but firmed up against the pound sterling and Singapore dollar. It was at 4.2705 to the US dollar and at 6.5337 to the pound and 3.0582 to the Singapore unit.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.67% to 18,903.02;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.8% to 22,956.57;
Shanghai’s Composite Index lost 1.72% to 3,375.20;
Taiwan’s Taiex fell 0.41% to 8,665.99;
South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.1% to 2,042.51 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index ended down 0.22% to 3,045.69.
Spot gold jumped US$5.02 to US$1,172.08.
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