Bears on the prowl on Bursa Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips closed off their intra-day lows on Tuesday on some fund buying on telcos and CIMB but Genting Bhd
's losses held back the FBM KLCI's advance.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down 0.27 point or 0.02% to 1,754.92. Turnover was steady at 2.16 billion shares valued at RM2.22bil. The broader market was mixed with 432 gainers, 364 losers and 427 counters unchanged.
A technical chartist said the market was lacklustre in the absence of strong catalysts and it was also critical for the KLCI to stay above the 1,750 level.
Foreign funds were net buyers at RM23.51mil with retail investors seen net buyers also at RM4.68 while local institutions were net sellers at RM28.19mil.
Most Southeast Asian stock markets ended lower on Tuesday, tracking Asian shares and Wall Street overnight as the passage of a U.S. healthcare bill grew doubtful, raising concerns about how the rest of President Donald Trump's ambitious economic agenda would fare, Reuters reported.
The ringgit rose 0.07% to the US dollar at 4.2850 and advanced 0.36% to the pound sterling at 5.5849 but slipped 0.16% to the Singapore dollar at 3.1342 and skidded 0.67% to the euro at 4.9418.
Ekovest jumped in active trade on fresh corporate news involving its KL River City project which was launched on Tuesday.
Related company Iskandar Waterfront City surged on speculation that it could be part of a joint venture in the Bandar Malaysia project China plans to cut off some funding for billionaire Wang Jianlin’s Dalian Wanda Group Co.
IWCity rose 30 sen to RM1.54 with 109.25 million shares done. Ekovest jumped 12 sen to RM1.17 with 71.92 million shares done. Ekovest-WB added 14 sen to 84.5 sen.
Genting Bhd fell nine sen to RM9.45 and erased 0.58 of a point, MISC lost six sen to RM7.34 while Tenaga fell two sen to RM14.16.
BAT was the top loser, falling 58 sen to RM43, Heineken lost 18 sen to RM17.76 while Nestle was down 10 sen to RM83.90. However, Ajinomoto rose 46 sen to RM25.46, Dutch Lady 30 sen to RM58.40 and Apollo 17 sen higher at RM5.37.
As for telcos, Maxis, Digi and Telekom rose four sen each to RM5.57, RM4.77 and RM6.45 respectively while Axiata edged up one sen to RM4.65.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery fell RM25 to RM2,512 per tonne.
United Plantations was the top gainer, up 84 sen to RM27.88 while TAHPS added 18 sen to RM7.08. Sime Darby rose two sen to RM9.55, KL Kepong was flat at RM24.70, PPB Group shed four sen to RM16.84 and IOI Corp shed one sen to RM4.49.
US light crude oil rose 11 cents to US$46.13 and Brent added 15 cents to US$48.57. Petronas Chemicals and Petronas Dagangan edged up two sen each to RM6.91 and RM23.70 while Petronas Gas fell four sen to RM18.78. UMW-OG lost three sen to 34 sen.
Among the banks, Hong Leong Bank lost 10 sen to RM15.80 and erased 0.37 of a point, RHB Bank two sen lower at RM5.04, AmBank and Public Bank were flat at RM5.10 and RM20.36, Maybank shed one sen to RM9.60, CIMB climbed five sen to RM6.33.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.59% and slipped below the key 20,000 level to 19,999.91;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.21% to 26,524.94;
CSI 300 rose 0.1% to 3,667.18;
Shanghai’s Composite Index rose 0.35% to 3,187.57;
Hang Seng China Enterprise fell 0.26% to 10,755.28;
Taiwan’s Taiex rose 0.23% to 10,481.26;
South Korea’s Kospi edged up 0.04% to 2,426.04 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index gained 0.24% to 3,306.08.
Spot gold rose US$3.23 to US$1,237.34 per troy ounce.
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