KUALA LUMPUR: There is no Christmas cheer for the local bourse in the final session ahead of the festive holiday as the benchmark FBM KLCI closed 6.05 points lower, dragged down by losses in heavyweights.
At 5pm, the 30-stock index was down 6.05 points to 1,617.15. The benchmark index opened 1.10 points lower at 1,622.09 this morning.
The broader market was weaker with decliners outpacing advancers. There were 249 gainers versus 442 losers while 366 stocks remained unchanged. Turnover stood at 972.6 million shares worth RM1.1bil.
Dealers do not expect to see a significant pick-up in trading activity next week as most investors would likely to be away for the year-end festivities. They added that most institutional investors have wind down their positions ahead of the Christmas holiday. Furthermore, there is no catalysts to stimulate investor interest.
Laggards in the KLCI component stocks were led by Maxis Bhd
, which dragged the index down by 0.8592 points. Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) dragged the index down by 0.7390 points while Genting Bhd dragged the index down by 0.3677 points.
Maxis fell 7 sen to RM5.95, TNB shed 8 sen to RM13.66 and Genting Bhd eased 6 sen to RM7.72.
Among the top gainers at Bursa Malaysia, Dutch Lady added 36 sen to RM55.50, Warisan gained 17 sen to RM1.87 and Panasonic Manufacturing rose 14 sen to RM31.68. The decliners included British American Tobacco, Heineken Malaysia and Malaysian Pacific Industries.
Shares in Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV) remained under pressure falling 9 sen, or 5.56% to RM1.54 after the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) said it no longer has any stake in FGV.
Among the banks, Maybank fell 2 sen to RM7.74, Hong Leong Bank eased 8 sen to RM13.08, CIMB rose 1 sen to RM4.58 and Public Bank closed unchanged at RM19.68.
Meanwhile, European shares edged up in early trade on Friday. Germany’s DAX 30 was up 0.13%, France’s CAC 40 rose 0.16% while the Euro STOXX 50 added 0.21%.
Oil prices slipped on Friday ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays. Brent crude fell 37 cents to US$54.68 per barrel while US crude shed 41 cents to US$ 52.54 per barrel.
Elsewhere in the region, Asian shares were a lower with Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average lost 0.09%, the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.94%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.28%, Korea’s Kospi rose 0.01% and the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong was down 0.28%.
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