Bears on the prowl on Bursa Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia was the only stock market among the key Asian bourses which was in the red at midday on Monday as Petronas Chemicals and CIMB came under some profit taking.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 3.69 points or 0.21% to 1,787.62. Turnover was 913.67 million shares valued at RM682.85mil. There were 183 gainers, 479 losers and 436 stocks unchanged.
The ringgit rose against the US dollar, up 0.15% to 4.2700 and increased by 0.14% to 5.4539 while it was flat against the euro at 4.7788 but dipped 0.01% to the Singapore dollar at 3.0903.
China stocks rose on Monday on signs that tight liquidity conditions were easing and as fewer new listings were expected to come onto the market, Reuters reported. Hong Kong stocks followed other Asian markets higher, shaking off Wall Street's uninspiring performance on Friday.
US light crude oil fell 18 cents to US$44.56 and Brent was down 17 cents to US$47.20. Petronas Chemicals lost seven sen to RM7.14 and erased 0.92 of a point from the KLCI, Petronas Gas was down eight sen to RM18.82 and Petronas Dagangan 16 sen lower at RM24.14.
Refiners Petron Malaysia
and Hengyuan also fell, tracking the decline in crude oil prices. Petron lost 19 sen to RM7.80 and Hengyuan 14 sen lower at RM5.51.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery rose RM21 to RM2,505 per tonne. However, KL Kepong fell 50 sen to RM24.80, IOI Corp five sen lower at RM4.53, Sime Darby one sen lower at RM9.61 and PPB Group was flat at RM17.20.
FGV rose nine sen to RM1.85 with 16 million shares done.
Among the banks, Hong Leong Bank lost 14 sen to RM15.48, CIMB six sen lower at RM6.67, AmBank was down five sen to RM5.05, Public Bank shed four sen to RM20.36, Maybank was flat at RM9.63 but RHB Bank rose three sen to RM5.08.
As for semicon and tech stocks, KESM fell 32 sen toRM14.78.
As for telcos, Digi rose four sen to RM4.99, Axiata three sen to RM5.02 but Telekom lost seven sen to RM6.58. Maxis was suspended at RM5.88.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.6% to 20,062.80;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 0.96% to 25,871.87;
CSI 300 jumped 0.95% to 3,552.05;
Shanghai’s Composite Index gained 09.66% to 3,143.77;
Hang Seng China Enterprise jumped 1.39% to 10,528.92;
Taiwan’s Taiex added 0.84% to 10,242.30;
South Korea’s Kospi advanced 0.34% to 2,369.86; and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index gained 0.37% to 3,243.47.
Spot gold shed US$1.14 to US$1,252.59.
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