KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips were flat early Monday as investors sought leads from funds while glove maker Supermax fell after its managing director Datuk Seri Stanley Thai was convicted for insider trading in APL Industries shares.
At 9.32am, the FBM KLCI was down 0.03 point to 1,717.20. Turnover was 296.28 million shares valued at RM119.09mil. There were 208 gainers, 211 losers and 242 counters unchanged.
Asian stocks hovered near a decade high on Monday as a robust business outlook continued to support investor risk appetite, while the euro reached a two-month top against the US dollar, Reuters reported.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was a shade lower at 567.94, still in striking distance of a 10-year peak of 570.21 on Thursday.
US oil prices remained near two-year highs on Monday on the back of the ongoing closure of the Keystone pipeline connecting Canada and the US, while expectations of extended OPEC-led supply cuts also supported markets.
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures slipped four cents to US$58.91 a barrel at 0029 GMT. Brent crude futures were flat at US$63.84 a barrel.
At Bursa Malaysia, Supermax fell 15 sen to RM1.94, after falling to an early low of RM1.79. There were 10.16 million shares done. Its call warrants C30 tumbled 9.5 sen to 23.5 sen.
Supermax-C29 was the most active with 34 million units traded. It fell 3.5 sen to 4.5 sen.
Ann Joo
fell 16 sen to RM3.72, Ann Joo-PA fell 11 sen to RM2.29, CSC Steel lost 11 sen to RM1.60.
Batu Kawan lost 20 sen to RM19.70 and KL Kepong 14 sen to RM24.36.
UMW-OG rose one sen to 31 sen. It delivered a core net loss of RM148mil for the nine months ended Sept 30, 2017 which made up 78% of CIMB Equities Research’s previous full-year core net loss forecast, and 42% of consensus.
Nestle rose 84 sen to RM92.80, HL Industries 14 sen to RM9.95, Lafarge 12 sen to RM6.90 while Lii Hen and Prestariang gained eight sen each to RM3.83 and RM1.43.
Petron gained 12 sen to RM12.28 while Petronas Dagangan and Hengyuan added 10 sen each to RM23.70 and RM10.82.
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