KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips extended their decline early Tuesday, the second day this week, weighed down by CIMB but Dialog Group
raced to a record high after analysts upgraded the oil and gas-related company.
At 10am, the KLCI was down 1.4 points or 0.08% to 1,752.97. Turnover was 815.86 million shares valued at RM300.66mil. There were 252 gainers, 254 losers and 310 counters unchanged.
The ringgit slipped against the strengthening US dollar, falling 0.11% to 4.220 from 4.2155 the previous day.
Oil prices held firm on Tuesday after Iraqi forces seized the oil-rich city of Kirkuk from largely autonomous Kurdish fighters while Asian shares look set to extend their bull run on optimism about upcoming earnings, Reuters reported.
Japan's Nikkei gained 0.6%, extending its 10-day winning streak until Monday while MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.04% having gained 10 of the past 12 sessions.
US crude traded at US$51.85 a barrel, little changed on the day, after having hit a high of US$52.37 on Monday. Brent crude fetched US$57.85 per barrel, having risen to as high as US$58.47 on Monday.
Petronas Dagangan fell 72 sen to Rm24.28 and gave up all its previous day’s gains. LNG shipper MISC fell six sen to RM7.19. Petronas Gas rose eight sen to RM18.76.
CIMB lost six sen to RM6.18 but off the earlier low of RM6.14 as investors reacted to news about Khazanah Nasional’s plans to sell a stake at between RM6.13 and RM6.24.
BAT fell 64 sen to RM42.56 with 100 shares done while Ajinomoto was down 12 sen to RM19.90. Apollo added eight sen to RM5.08.
Glove maker Hartalega shed six sen to RM7.64.
Dialog rose 12 sen to a record high of RM2.27 with 5.09 million shares done. Its call warrants C17 added 11 sen to RM2.27 and C14 9.5 sen to 14.5 sen and C16 6.5 sen higher at 17 sen.
Eita, whose core business include power equipment system and elevators rose, seven sen to RM1.85. CIMB Equities Research kept its Add call and target price of RM2.40, which is 34.8% above the last traded price of RM1.78 on Monday.
Wong Engineering and Globetronics rose seven sen each to RM1.27 and RM6.32.
Win a prize this Mother's Day by subscribing to our annual plan now! T&C applies.
