KUALA LUMPUR: Several smallish corporate news failed to provide the much needed catalysts for the sluggish Bursa Malaysia on Tuesday amid a mixed broader market.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down 2.9 points or 0.16% to 1,761.13. Turnover was 2.78 billion shares valued at RM1.65bil. There were 382 gainers, 379 losers and 4865 counters unchanged.
Among the Asean markets, only Thai's SET Index was up while the others were in the red.
Hong Kong shares shrugged off modest losses on Wall Street to end higher on Tuesday, aided by strong gains in telecoms and property firms, Reuters reported.
The ringgit rose 0.3% to the US dollar to 4.2195 but fell 0.34% to the pound sterling to 5.5667, slipping 0.23% against the Singapore dollar to 3.1093 and was down 0.15% to the euro at 4.9749.
Among the companies in the news were KNM. Mega First and Vizione
.
KNM fell one sen to 28 sen in active trade. KNM's United Kingdom unit Peterborough Green Energy Ltd has awarded a £346mil (RM1.9bil) contract to a China Western Power Industrial Co. Ltd to build a energy-from-waste power plant.
Mega First added two sen to RM3.58. It had secured loan facilities totalling US$150mil or RM634.87mil to part finance the building of its Don Sahong hydropower project in Laos
Vizione added 0.5 sen to 15.5 sen after it secured a RM465mil contract to build five blocks of affordable homes and shoplots in Setapak.
Oil rose to around US$56 a barrel on Tuesday, supported by Saudi Arabian export cuts in November and comments from OPEC and trading companies that the market is rebalancing after years of oversupply, Reuters reported.
Saudi Arabia has cut November allocations by 560,000 barrels per day (bpd), in line with its commitment to an OPEC-led supply reduction pact. In the United States, some production remains offline following Hurricane Nate, lending additional support.
Petronas Gas jumped 50 sen to RM18.58 and pushed the KLCI up 1.68 points, Petronas Chemicals edged up one sen to RM7.34 and Petronas Dagangan shed two sen to RM24.28.
Genting Malaysia lost 11 sen to end at RM5.36 and erased 1.11 points from the KLCI. However Genting Bhd added seven sen to RM9.63 and nudged the index up 0.46 of a point, IHH Health gained four sen to RM5.71. Tenaga was flat RM14.24.
Fitch Ratings expects higher earnings at Genting's Malaysian leisure and hospitality (L&H) and oil-palm plantation businesses, which together contributed around 40% of its consolidated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) in 1H17.
As for the consumer stocks, Dutch Lady fell the most, down 68 sen to RM59.22, F&N 26 sen to RM24.74 and BAT was down 14 sen to RM42.86.
Among the banks, AmBank fell six sen to RM4.43, RHB Bank four sen to RM5.08, Maybank and CIMB shed one sen each to RM6.28 and RM9.54 while Public Bank was flat at RM20.56 but Hong Leong Bank rose eight sen to RM15.90.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM43 to RM2,692 after reserves reached a 19-month high.
As for plantations, Sime Darby gained two sen to RM9.14 but IOI Corp shed one sen to RM4.52 and PPB Group four sen lower lower at RM16.92. KL Kepong was flat at RM24.78.
MMC Corp fell 12 sen to RM1.89 – the lowest since March 2016 in the absence of any negative news.
PMB Tech and Time dotCom fell 10 sen each to RTM2.86 and RM9.10 while Rapid gave up nine sen to RM5.54.
Limited time offer:
Just RM5 per month.
