KUALA LUMPUR: CIMB and Maxis dragged the FBM KLCI into the red at midday on Thursday while Iskandar Waterfront City (IWCity) fell in active trade but the overall mood of the market was lacklustre.
At 12.30pm, the KLCI was down two points or 0.11% to 1,755.27. Turnover was 838.04 million shares valued at RM775.30mil. There were 240 gainers, 342 losers and 472 counters unchanged.
Southeast Asian stock markets were sluggish on Thursday ahead of a meeting by the European Central Bank, with investors looking for cues on how it will unwind unconventional policy that has kept borrowing costs at rock bottom, Reuters reported.
It said the ECB meeting later in the global day was expected to lay the groundwork for an autumn policy shift, after President Mario Draghi last month opened the door to tweaks in a speech that was viewed as unexpectedly hawkish.
The ringgit shed 0.06% to the US dollar at 4.2890, it was down 0.01% to the pound sterling at 5.5846 and slipped 0.01% to the Singapore dollar to 3.1321 but edged up 0.09% to the euro at 4.9373.
CIMB fell 10 sen to RM6.32 with 14.7 million shares done. Khazanah Nasional announced it was selling 90.5 million shares, or 1% of the share capital of CIMB at between RM6.31 and RM6.42 to raise between RM571mil and RM581mil.
AmBank edged up one sen to RM5.02, Hong Leong Bank was flat at RM15.70, Maybank shed one sen to RM9.63, while Public Bank and RHB Bank lost two sen each to RM20.34 and RM5.05.
Genting Bhd
jumped 16 sen to RM9.50 and added one point to the KLCI. Genting Malaysia rose sixc sen to RM5.88 while Tenaga eked out a gains of two sen to RM14.14.
Ajinomoto was the top loser, down 28 sen to RM25.48 while Dutch Lady lost 10 sen to RM59.
Maxis fell seven sen to RM5.49 and erased 0.9 of a point, Axiata rose five sen to RM4.72 but Digi slipped five sen to RM4.74 and Telekom was down three sen to RM6.36.
US light crude oil shed two sen to US$47.10 and Brent was down four cents to US$49.66.
Petronas Gas fell eight sen to RM18.78, Petronas Chemicals seven sen to RM6.87 and Petronas Dagangan four sen lower at RM23.66. UMW Oil and Gas slipped 0.5 sen to 32.5 sen with 23.5 million shares done.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery rose RM18 to RM2,543 per tonne on stronger exports. IOI Corp and KL Kepong were flat at RM4.49 and RM24.72 while PPB Group added four sen to RM16.76 and Sime Darby unchanged at RM9.55.
Iskandar Waterfront City fell six sen to RM1.40 as hopes of it getting a piece of the Bandar Malaysia development seemed remote.
Prestariang was down nine sen to RM2.10, falling for the second day after its subsidiary Prestariang Skin Sdn Bhd (PSkin) signed a RM3.5bil, 15-year concession agreement with the Home Affairs Ministry to implement an integrated core immigration system known as SKIN. Prestariang will invest up to RM1bil to build and deploy the SKIN.
CIMB Research was neutral on its deal but retained its Add with a target price of RM3.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.66% to 20,153.11;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.3% to 26,752.92;
CSI 300 edged up 0.12% to 3,734.09;
Shanghai’s Composite Index climbed 0.17% to 3,236.58;
Hang Seng China Enterprise eked out a 0.01% gain to 10,861.82;
Taiwan’s Taiex fell 0.16% to 10,489.69;
South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.15% to 2,433.54 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index shed 0.07% to 3,322.81.
Spot gold fell US$2.97 to US$1,238.28.
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