KUALA LUMPUR: Key European bourses and most Asian markets except China were in the red on Tuesday as fears of Britain exiting the EU or Brexit cast a pall of gloom, with Bursa Malaysia among those impacted as on continued foreign selling.
Maybank and CIMB fell in active trade. Stock market data showed foreign funds were net sellers at -RM284.53mil but local retail investors were net buyers at RM68.61mil and local institutions at RM215.92mil.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down 3.66 points or 0.22% to 1,626.11. Turnover was 1.47 billion shares valued at RM1.61bil. There were 278 gainers, 486 losers and 367 counters.
The pound sterling fell 1% against the dollar on Tuesday to trade near eight-week lows, after opinion polls showed growing support for Britain leaving the European Union ahead of a vote next week.
The ringgit closed weaker against the major currencies. It fell to 4.1070 to the US dollar from 4.0903; weakened to 5.8066 to the pound sterling from 5.7873 and ended at 3.0292 to the Singapore dollar from 3.0127. It was softer against the euroi at 4.6145 from 4.6097.
Sentiment could have been impacted by a slump in crude oil price and a statement from Abu Dhabi's state-owned International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC), which asked a London court to arbitrate in a dispute with 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), in which it is claiming about US$6.5bil.
However, 1MD said it noted that IPIC and Aabar Investments PJS's legal action and that it and its legal counsel would review the request for arbitration once it has been served with a copy.
Maybank fell 16 sen to RM8 in active trade, erasing 2.68 points from the KLCI. CIMB was down four sen to RM4.36 while Hong Leong Bank and AmBank were flat at RM13 and RM4.35.
Among the other KLCI stocks, UMW fell 26 sen to RM5.28, MISC and Genting Bhd
lost 12 sen each to RM7.48 and RM8.04.
Bintulu Port was the top loser, down 38 sen to RM6.62 but volume was almost unchanged from earlier Tuesday at 2,000 shares.
US light crude oil fell 66 cents to US$48.22 and Brent slipped 57 cents to US$49.78. Petron Malaysia fell 24 sen to RM3.87, the biggest decline in recent weeks. SK Petro shed five sen to RM1.50.
There was some fund support seen for Petronas stocks, as Petronas Dagangan and Petronas Gas climbed 16 sen each to RM23.42 and RM21.56 while Petronas Chemicals added one sen to RM6.48.
Tenaga Nasional rose four sen to RM14.02 and IHH Healthcare three sen to RM6.39. MAHB was the top gainer, up 19 sen to RM6.57.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery skidded RM46 to RM2,482 per tonne. PPB Group rose 12 sen to RM16.08, IOI Corp and KL Kepong lost four sen each to RM4.29 and RM23.04 and Sime Darby two sen lower at RM7.50.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed down 1% to 15,859;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 0.61% to 20.387.53;
CSI 300 rose 0.31% to 3,075.98;
Shanghai’s Composite Index added 0.32% to 2,842.19;
Shenzhen Composite rose 0.29% to 1,832.63;
Hang Seng China Enterprise shed 0.43% to 8,583.09;
Taiwan’s Taiex added 0.47% to 8,576.12;
South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.36% to 1,972/03;
Singapore’s Straits Times Index fell 0.61% to 2,768.33.
Spot gold fell US$3.71 to US$1,280.15.
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