Bears on the prowl on Bursa Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia, key markets in Europe and Asia fell on Tuesday on rising worries about the fallout from North Korea's latest stunt by firing a missile over northern Japan.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down 8.35 points to 0.47% to 1,761.14. Turnover was 1.46 billion shares valued at RM1.83bil. The broader market was weaker with decliners beating advancers nearly two to one or 570 losers to 269 gainers and 394 counters unchanged.
The ringgit weakened against the key currencies. It was unchanged at 4.2677 against the US dollar, it fell 0.41% to the pound sterling to 5.5297 and slipped 0.22% to the Singapore dollar at 3.1561. It tumbled 1.06% to the euro at 5.1457.
World stocks tumbled and safe-haven assets jumped on Tuesday after North Korea fired a missile over northern Japan, fuelling worries of fresh tension between Washington and Pyongyang, Reuters reported.
US futures fell with the DJIA down 0.56% while S&P 500 fell 0.7%.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell more than 1% to a six-month low, also weighed down by the surge of the euro above a key level, while US futures fell as much as 0.85% on the missile news before paring losses.
Japan's Nikkei hit a four-month low before paring losses to end 0.5% down. South Korea's Kospi, meanwhile, shed as much as 1.6%, helping to drag down MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan by 0.5%.
At Bursa Malaysia, Maybank fell 14 sen to RM9.46 and erased 2.52 points from the KLCI, CIMB lost eight sen to RM6.70 and wiped out 1.23 points while Ambank lost 12 sen to RM4.31.
Hong Leong Bank fell 14 sen to RM15.26, RHB Bank and Public Bank were unchanged at RM5.05 and RM20.58.
Sime Darby lost nine sen to RM9 and erased 1.04 points from the KLCI after the recent impairments nearly RM700mil in the fourth quarter ended June 30.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM26 to RM2,712 per tonne. Among the plantations, PPB Group ended down four sen to RM16.66, IOI Corp lost two sen to RM4.51 but KL Kepong added two sen to RM24.44.
Genting Malaysia rebounded after two days of losses after a downgrade, rising 17 sen to RM5.80 and nudging the KLCI up 1.72 points. Genting Bhd
fell 12 sen to RM9.65.
Crude traded in a narrow but volatile range on Tuesday as the market grappled with the shutdown of some 13 percent of refining capacity in the United States, the world's largest oil consumer, after a hurricane ripped through the heart of its oil industry, according to Reuters.
US light crude rose 10 cents to US$46.67 and Brent lost nine cents to US$51.80.
As for oil and gas stocks, Petronas Gas rose 30 sen to RM18.34, Petronas Dagangan and Petronas Chemicals were unchanged at RM24.10 and RM7.19.
As for telcos, Axiata fell five sen to RM4.85, Telekom lost three sen to RM6.42, Digi was flat at RM4.88 but Maxis rose three sen to RM5.77. Time dotCOm skidded 26 sen to RM9.40.
Refiners Hengyuan rose 40 sen to RM7.43 and Petron added 31 sen to RM8.60.
Chip maker MPI was the top loser, down 38 sen to RM13.70 in relatively thin trade as investors took profit.
Seacera came under selling pressure, down 19.5 sen to 94.5 sen with 19 millin shares done while Mitrajaya stumbled 17 sen to RM1.16.
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