KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia joined the key Asian markets to end the morning session on Friday on a cautious note, with Axiata and Genting Malaysia among the biggest decliners though CIMB managed to cushion the fall.
At 12.30pm, the KLCI was down 0.76 of a point or 0.04% to 1,769.31. Turnover was 838.67 million shares valued at RM802.25mil. There were 206 gainers, 370 losers and 451 counters unchanged.
The ringgit weakened against the US dollar by 0.08% to 4.2803. However, it recovered against the pound sterling, up 0.42% to 5.5961 and gained 0.22% to the Singapore dollar at 3.1443 and edged up 0.28% to the euro at 5.0020.
China stocks were flat on Friday morning but the Shanghai benchmark is set for a sixth week of gains, as resource shares climbed on solid earnings and optimism that Beijing's supply-side reforms will further boost raw material prices, Reuters said.
Hong Kong shares fell on profit-taking after hitting more than two-year highs the previous session, with index heavyweights life insurer AIA and tech giant Tencent pulling back from record levels.
Singapore shares fell as much as 1%, dragged by financials, while most other Southeast Asian stock markets were subdued in line with broader Asian shares after a tech-stock driven slide on Wall Street, Reuters reported.
Axiata fell seven sen to RM4.62 and erased 1.04 points, Maxis rose rose three sen to RM5.62, Telekom two sen to RM6.29 while Digi inched up one sen to to RM4.79.
Genting Malaysia fell 11 sen to RM6 and wiped out 1.07 points, Genting Bhd
lost nine sen to RM9.63 and Tenaga was down four sen to RM14.20.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery fell RM31 to RM2,646 per tonne. Sime Darby shed one sen to RM9.53, IOI Corp and KL Kepong were flat at RM4.48 and RM24.70 while PPB Group added four sen to RM16.84.
Among the banks, CIMB rose eight sen to RM6.67 and added 1.19 points to the KLCI. Public Bank added eight sen to RM20.58, Hong Leong Bank two sen higher at RM15.80, Maybank one sen higher at RM9.65, AmBank shed one sen to RM4.98 and RHB Bank five sen lower at RM5.04.
AeonCredit lost 20 sen to RM13.76 while Allianz lost 12 sen to RM14.72.
US light crude oil slipped 11 cents to US$48.93 and Brent was down 10 cents to US$51.39. Petronas Dagangan lost eioght sen to RM23.78, Petronas Chemicals shed one sen to RM6.95 and Petronas Gas was flat at RM18.96.
Among the semicon stocks, MPI fell 12 sen to RM14.08 after the fall of tech stocks in the US, Pentamaster rose 23 sen to RM4.34.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.65% to 19,948.64;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.63% to 26,959.37;
CSI 300 rose 0.16% to 3,718.18;
Shanghai’s Composite Index shed 0.04% to 3,248.34;
Hang Seng China Enterprise fell 1.19% to 10,729.35;
Taiwan’s Taiex lost 0.82% to 10,422.26;
South Korea’s Kospi lost 1.35% to 2,410.16;
Singapore’s Straits Times Index fell 0.91% to 3,324.11.
Spot gold lost 88 cents to US$1,258.28.
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