KUALA LUMPUR: Caution prevailed at Bursa Malaysia as blue chips extended their losses at midday on Friday, tracking the key Asian markets ahead of the US presidential vote next week, while the ringgit weakened.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 1.77 points or 0.11% to 1,646.31. Turnover was 656.55 million shares valued at RM692.04mil. There were 228 gainers, 361 losers and 348 counters unchanged.
Hong Kong stocks were on shaky ground on Friday morning after the benchmark index slipped to 2-1/2-month lows in a week marked by mounting anxiety over the outcome of next week's U.S. election, Reuters reported.
China shares ended the morning session roughly flat, and are on track to rise for the fourth consecutive week, with investors taking some comfort from signs showing China's economy is stabilising.
The ringgit weakened against the key currencies, falling to 4.1995 to the US dollar from 4.1842 and slipping against the Singapore unit to 3.0335 from 3.0230. It lost ground against the pound sterling to 5.2351 from 5.1674 and was at 4.6593 to the Euro from 4.6476.
Weighing down investor sentiment was also the disappointing trade data where September exports fell at a faster pace then expected. Malaysia's September exports fell 3% to RM68.03bil, which was steeper than a survey of 2% forecasted.
Maybank fell five sen to RM7.73 and erased 0.84 of a point from the KLCI. CIMB shed one sen to RM4.75, RHB Bank three sen to RM4.58 and Ambank two sen lower at RM4.10. Public Bank was flat at RM19.84 while Hong Leong Bank rose four sen to RM13.12.
Heavyweight Tenaga rose two sen to RM14.20 while gains by Genting Bhd
shored up the KLCI when it rose 20 sen to RM7.77 and added 1.23 points. Genting Malaysia eked out one sen to RM4.67. MISC fell thee sen to RM7.20 after its disappointing results.
US light crude oil eked out a 10 cent gain to US$44.76 and Brent added 12 cents to US$46.47. Petronas Chemicals fell fove sen to RM6.89 and Petronas Gas four sen lower at RM22 while Petronas Dagangan added two sen to RM23.32. SapuraKencana fell two sen to RM1.51.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery lost RM9 to RM2,765 per tonne. KL Kepong extended its decline to RM23.86, down 24 sen. Sime Darby and IOI Corp added two sen each to RM8.18 and RM4.37 but PPB Group shed two sen to RM15.96.
BAT was the top loser, down 34 sen to RM47.56 while Dutch Lady lost 10 sen to RM58.50.
UMW was down 22 sen to RM5.57, KESM 18 sen to RM9.32 and Unisem 11 sen to RM2.34.
RCE Capital jumped eight sen to RM1.31 on its stronger earnings results.
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