KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips managed to recoup nearly half of Monday morning's losses at midday on some mild fund buying but the overall market remained weak as investors stayed on the sidelines following the aftermath of last Friday's Brexit.
At 12.30pm, the KLCI was down 7.43 points or 0.45% to 1,626.62 but off the early low of 1,618. Turnover was 638 million shares valued at RM460.62mil. Decliners beat advancers 491 to 168 while 290 counters were unchanged.
Asian stocks fell and the British pound tumbled 2.04% on Monday against the US dollar to 1.3401 from 1.3679 as markets struggled to shake off deep uncertainty sparked by Brexit. The pound plummeted to a 31-year low of US$1.3228 during Friday's wild trade, Reuters reported.
The ringgit rose 3.43% to the pound sterling at 5.5038 from the previous close of 5.6994. It was also firmer against the euro at 4.5228 from 4.5564.
However, the ringgit fell 0.37% to the US dollar at 4.1077 from 4.0928 and slipped against the S$ at 3.0250 from 3.0222.
IHH Healthcare lost 20 sen to RM6.50 and erased 2.74 points from the KLCI.
As for banks, Hong Leong Bank lost 16 sen to RM13, CIMB eight sen to RM7.32, Ambank four sen to RM4.33, Maybank two sen to RM8.18 but Public Bank added 10 sen to RM19.30.
The entitlement to the MBSB-OR was the most active with 36.57 million units done, sliding 7.5 sen to 10.5 sen.
US light crude oil fell 27 cents to US$47.37 and Brent was down 13 cents to US$48.28. Petronas Dagangan lost 28 sen to RM23.16 and Petronas Chemicals one sen to RM6.43 but Petronas Gas jumped 28 sen to RM21.88.
Petron Malaysia
lost 17 sen to RM3.73 while SapuraKencana fell three sen to RM1.32 and Bumi Armada one sen to 67.5 sen.
As for consumer stocks, BAT was the top loser, down 64 sen to RM50.36,Dutch Lady added 30 sen to RM58.20 and Ajinomoto 22 sen higher at RM12.32.
Lafarge 23 sen to RM7.76 and Hap Seng 16 sen to RM7.59.
AirAsia shed two sen to RM2.59 and AirAsia X 0.5 sen lower at 36 sen.
Meanwhile the weaker ringgit saw Top Glove rising 12 sen to RM4.75 as the glove maker also expects a better year.
As for telcos, Axiata lost four sen to RM5.46, Telekom six sen to RM6.76 and Digi seven sen to RM4.73 but Maxis added two sen to RM5.82.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery rose RM15 to 2,394 per tonne. Far East rose 18 sen to RM7.68. Sime Darby fell three sen to RM7.46, IOI Corp four sen to RM4.30, PPB Group lost 10 sen to RM16.16 but KL Kepong added two sen to RM23.02,
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 staged a mild rebound to add 1.65% to 15,198.06 after falling 7.9% last Friday;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 073% to 20,110.88;
CSI 300 rose 0.83% to 3,102.73;
Shanghai’s Composite Index added 0.86% to 2,878.76;
Shenzhen Composite rose 1.45% to 1,928.14;
Hang Seng China Enterprise shed 0.56% to 8,482.46;
Taiwan’s Taiex lost 0.29% to 8,452.51;
South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.34% to 1,918.60 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index lost 0.29% to 2,727.42.
Spot gold advanced US$10.97 to US$1,326.72.
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