KUALA LUMPUR: Fund selling of key stocks Malayan Banking Bhd
(Maybank), IHH Healthcare Bhd and Sime Darby Bhd pushed the FBM KLCI deeper into the red on Tuesday while crude oil prices gave up part of the previous day's gain.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down 4.78 points or 0.29% to 1,664.72. Turnover was 1.49 billion shares valued at RM1.85bil. Decliners led advancers 426 to 338 while 395 counters were unchanged.
Hong Kong shares rose more than 1% on Tuesday, recovering much of Monday's drop and aided by further money inflows from mainland Chinese investors. The Hang Seng index rose 1.1% to 23,571.90 while the China Enterprises Index gained 1.2% to 9,746.56.
The ringgit furmed up against the US dollar, Singapore dollar and Euro but slipped against the Pound Sterling. It was at 4.1267 to the greenback from 4.1328 and advanced to 3.0353 to the Singapore dollar from 3.0379 and climbed against the Euro to 4.6406 from 4.6499.
IHH Healthcare saw a total of 164.75 million shares or nearly 2% stake traded off-market at RM6.20 each, which was 23 sen below Monday's closing price of RM6.43. At the close on Tuesday, it was down 12 sen to RM6.31 and erased 1.68 points from the KLCI.
IHH Healthcare announced that its substantial shareholder Mitsui & Co. had disposed of 164.6 million shares in an off-market deal at RM6.20 a piece and reduced its stake to 18.04% or 1.485 billion shares.
Maybank fell 10 sen to RM7.59 and erased 1.70 points from the KLCI, AFG was down 12 sen to RM3.89, HLFG lost 10 sen to RM15.84, RHB Bank shed eight sen to RM4.70, Public Bank four sen to RM19.94 while AmBank two sen lower at RM4.18.
UMW fell the most among the KLCI stocks, down 20 sen to RM5.82, Genting Bhd lost 12 sen to RM7.99 while Tenaga Nasional was flat at RM14.40 but MISC rose eight sen to RM7.60.
Chip maker MPI was down 19 sen to RM7.78 on profit taking.
MNC Wireless shed one sen to 14 sen in active trade. Earlier, it was issued an unusual market activity query from Bursa Malaysia Securities after it fell sharply recently.
Glove makers ended higher, with Kossan up 21 sen to RM6.87 and Top Glove 18 sen higher at RM5.
Crude oil prices fell with US light crude oil down 67 cents to US$45.26 and Brent was down 79 cents to US$46.56. Petronas Chemicals and Petronas Gas were flat at RM6.70 and RM21.90 while Petronas Dagangan added eight sen to RM23.48 and SK Petro shed two sen to RM1.52.
Crude palm oil price for third month delivery RM48 to RM2,667 per tonne. Sime Darby fell 11 sen to RM7.67, KL Kepong was flat at RM24.10, PPB Group rose two sen to RM16.18 and IOI Corp edged up one sen to RM4.49.
As for telcos, Digi fell two sen to RM4.98, Telekom was flat at RM6.79, Maxis added one sen to RM6.15 while Axiata was the biggest mover among the KLCI stocks, up eight sen to Rm5.45 and adding 1.21 points to the KLCI.
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