KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s blue chips ended Thursday slightly lower on continued fund selling of plantations and selected oil and gas stocks though the broader market was firmer and the ringgit managed to eke out mild gains.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down 2.12 points or 0.13% 1,663.20. Turnover was 2.13 billion shares valued at RM1.84bil. There were 476 gainers, 407 losers and 353 counters unchanged.
However, Maybank and Public Bank managed to stage a rebound though AmBank, RHB Cap and CIMB lost ground.
The ringgit firmed up against the US dollar to 4.3650 from 4.3675 but weakened to 6.6299 from 6.6169 versus the pound sterling. It was at 3.0757 to the Singapore dollar from 3.0735.
Hong Kong shares posted their best performance in five weeks on Thursday, as strong financials, telecommunications and information technology firms led stocks higher.
However, China stocks closed down as financial sector stocks led indexes lower following a 14% gain from Nov 3 to early this week, Reuters reported.
Oil prices struggled to break away from over two-month lows on Thursday, and the outlook remains bleak as traders ditch positions and producers hedge against lower prices despite some analysts saying market oversupply may have been overstated, according to Reuters.
US light crude oil rose 18 cents to US$43.11 and Brent added 19 cents to US$46. Petronas Dagangan fell 66 sen to RM23.42 and erased 1.12 points from the KLCI while SK Petro shed five sen to RM2.12 but Petronas Gas edge dup eight sen to RM22.98 and Petronas Chemicals two sen higher at RM6.52.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery rose RM11 to RM2,341 per tonne, staging a mild recovery from the previous day’s losses due to the inventory build up.
Heavyweight IOI Corp fell 15 sen to RM4.13 and erased 1.65 points from the KLCI. PPB Group and KL Kepong lost 42 sen each to RM15.32 and RM22.54 while Sime Darby shed three sen to RM8.10.
Among the finance and banks, Hong Leong Bank rose 16 sen to RM13.86 but HLFG lost 10 sen to RM13.48 and HLFG-OR 14 sen to RM1.73.
Maybank and Public Bank rose 14 sen each to RM8.36 and RM17.96 while AmBank lost eight sen to RM4.54, RHB Cap seven sen to RM6.18 and CIMB two sen to RM4.58.
Genting fell six sen to RM7.45, Tenaga two sen to RM13.10 but Genting Malaysia gained two sen to RM4.35. MAHB fell 17 sen to RM5.13.
Instaco jumped two sen to 22.5 sen ahead of news that it had secured several contracts.
Tien Wah hit limit-up, surging 52 sen to RM2.34 after posting a strong set of results.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.03% to 19,697.77;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index jumped 2.4% to 22,888.92;
Shanghai’s Composite Index fell 0.48% to 3,632.90;
Taiwan’s Taiex rose 0.16% to 8,428.09;
South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.2% to 1,993.36;
Singapore’s Straits Times Index fell 0.71% to 2,960.53.
Spot gold rose US$1.52 to US$1,087.77.
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