KUALA LUMPUR: Mild selling of plantations and telcos nudged the FBM KLCI into the red at the close of the first trading day for November on Monday while key Asian markets were mixed.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down 1.64 points or 0.1% to 1,664.07. Turnover was 2.61 billion shares valued at RM1.96bil. There were 455 gainers, 412 losers and 332 counters unchanged.
MIDF Research said investors should brace for a subdued trading month in November and cautioned investors against taking excessive position in small cap stocks amid the continued foreign shareholding in Malaysian equities.
For 2015, last week’s attrition raised the cumulative net foreign outflow to RM17.5bil, compared with the RM6.9b outflow for the entire 2014.
However, October recorded a relatively rare incidence of foreign buying this year, the first surplus since April and only the second time in the last 14 months,” MIDF Research said.
Reuters reported that on the external front, Hong Kong shares finished down on Monday amid concerns about China's weak economy and Beijing's crackdown on illegal futures trading.
The ringgit firmed up against the US dollar to 4.3003 from the previous close of 4.3012 while it weakened against the pound sterling to 6.6421 from the previous close of 6.5915 while it was at 3.0680 to the Singapore dollar from 3.0659.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM17 to RM2,346 per tonne. United Plantations fell 50 sen to RM26, KL Kepong 22 sen to RM22.56 and PPB Group 18 sen to RM15.28 while heavyweight Sime Darby lost six sen to RM8.30. However, IOI Corp rose five sen to RM4.31.
As for telcos, TM fell eight sen to RM6.58, Axiata four sen to RM6.13, Maxis three sen to RM6.56 but DiGi edged up one sen to RM5.27.
BAT fell the most, down 82 sen to RM61 while Carlsberg lost 26 sen to RM12.16.
Among the banks, AmBank and Hong Leong Bank lost six sen each to RM4.72 and RM13.92, CIMB two sen to RM4.59 while Public Bank was flat at RM18.08 and Maybank edged up one sen to RM8.27.
MISC rose six sen to RM9.09 ahead of the release of its earnings on Wednesday. Genting Bhd
rose six sen to RM7.48 and Genting Malaysia two sen to RM4.32.
XOX was the most active, down 2.5 sen to 28.5 sen after Bursa Malaysia Securities advised investors to be cautious after the recent sharp rise in the price and the company’s response to the unusual market activity (UMA) queries.
Idimension Consolidated was flat at 11.5 sen after Bursa Securities queried over the sudden rise in volume of the shares on Monday.
SHH jumped 17 sen to RM2.40 and this also prompted Buyrsa Securities to issue a UMA.
Poultry-based stocks Lay Hong and Huat Lai were among the top gainers. Lay Hong added 70 sen to RM6.50 and Huat Lau 30 sen to RM3.80.
Perstima gained 24 sen to RM5.18 and Tan Chong 20 sen to RM2.70 while MPI gained 18 sen to RM7.13.
US light crude oil fell 52 cents to US$46.07 and Brent lost 42 cents to US$49.14. Petronas Gas fell eight sen to RM22.90, Petronas Chemicals lost four sen to RM6.31 while Petronas Dagangan was flat at RM22.50.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 2.1% to 18,683.24;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1.19% to 22,370.04;
Shanghai’s Composite Index fell 1.7% to 3,325.08;
Taiwan’s Taiex rose 0.71% to 8,614.77;
South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.28% to 2,035.24 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index lost 0.83% to 2,973.45.
Spot gold fell US$2.65 to US$1,139.47.
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