At 5pm, the KLCI was up 0.09 of a point or 0.01% to 1,707.68. Turnover was 2.28 billion shares valued at RM2.45bil. There were 427 gainers, 431 losers and 378 counters unchanged.
The ringgit rose against the US dollar and pound sterling but fell against the Singapore dollar and the euro.
The ringgit was at 4.4530 against the US dollar from the previous close of 4.4540 and advanced against the pound to 5.5579 from 5.5690. It retreated against the Singapore dollar to 3.1451 from 3.1421 and fell against the euro to 4.7426 from 4.7392.
Most key Asian markets closed lower. Bloomberg reported investors continued to step back from equities at the end of the week even as a global pullback in other reflation trades eased. Equities in Asia fell, with China stocks traded in Hong Kong paring a weekly gain.
At Bursa Malaysia, CPO for third month delivery fell RM73 to RM2,856 per tonne – the lowest since Nov 16 last year. The government raised the export tax from 7.5% per tonne to 8% effective March.
IOI Corp fell one sen to RM4.63, KL Kepong four sen lower at RM5.09, PPB Group was flat at RM16.36, while Sime Darby edged up one sen to RM49.16.
BAT was the top gainer of the day and star among the consumer stocks, adding 38 sen to RM49.16 after its strong financial results for FY16, Carlsberg added 28 sen to RM14.40, Heineken 22 sen to RM16.80. Nestle fell 48 sen to RM75.92.
US light crude oil fell two cents to US$53.34 and Brent was down five cents to US$55.60. Among the oil and gas stocks, Petronas Chemicals rose 20 sen to RM7.50 and added 2.7 points to the KLCI, Petronas Dagangan gained two sen to RM23.96 while Petronas Gas was flat at RM20.64.
Bumi Armada
was the most active, climbing 5.5 sen to 72.5 sen with 160 million shares as its prospects turned optimistic. Its floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) has arrived at the Kraken field in the UK North Sea on Feb 13.
Among the heavyweights, Genting Malaysia was up 16 sen to RM5.25, Genting Bhd added three sen to RM8.83, MISC shed two sen to RM7.68 while Tenaga also gave up two sen to RM13.48.
Infrastructure company Ekovest extended its gains, advancing 11 sen to RM3.05.
DneX rose three sen to 33.5 sen and the warrants WD added one sen to 8.5 sen. DneX is building a new back-end system for Bukit Megah Sdn Bhd for the latter's rehiring programme of illegal foreign workers.
DneX would be paid RM30 per transaction of “eWork Permit”, which is the name of the new back-end system to be set up for Bukit Megah’s rehiring operations, according to CIMB Equities Research.
Among the financial stocks, Aeon Credit's came under continued profit taking, down 20 sen to RM15.44 while HLFG lost 16 sen to RM15.20.
Maybank rose six sen to RM8.46 but Public Bank lost eight sen to RM20, Hong Leong Bank shed four sen to RM13.38, RHB Bank and CIMB were down one sen each to RM5.09 and RM5.08.
As for telcos, Axiata fell 15 sen to RM4.83 and erased 2.28 points from the KLCI, Digi shed two sen to RM5.05, Telekom gained one sen to RM6.17 and Maxis added two sen to RM6.43.
UMW which had seen strong investor interest after the recent move to exit the oil and gas business, fell 17 sen to RM5.26.
Complete Logistic rose 6.5 sen to RM1.06 – extending its recent rally which prompted a query from Bursa Securities.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.58% to 19,234.62;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was down 0.31% to 24,033.74;
CSI 300 lost 0.57% to 3,421.44;
Shanghai’s Composite Index shed 0.85% to 3,202.08;
Hang Seng China Enterprise was down 0.91% to 10,360.13;
Taiwan’s Taiex fell 0.12% to 9,759.76;
South Korea’s Kospi eased 0.06% to 2,080.58 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index rose 0.35% to 3,107.65.
Spot gold rose US$2.50 to US$1,241.55.
Limited time offer:
Just RM5 per month.
