KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips closed lower on Wednesday, giving up more than half of the previous day's gains and Hong Leong Bank and HLFG came under profit taking while nearly all key Asian markets came under pressure.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down 6.51 points or 0.38% to 1,718.33. Turnover was 1.58 billion shares valued at RM2.25bil. There were 346 gainers, 431 losers and 448 counters unchanged.
The ringgit lost some ground against the US dollar, down 0.24% to 4.0763, also slipping 0.24% to the pound sterling at 5.4584 while it shed 0.12% to the Singapore dollar at 3.0221. However, it edged up 0.06% to the euro at 4.8153.
Hong Kong stocks posted their biggest single-day loss in over a year on Wednesday, with sentiment hurt by a tumble in index heavyweight Tencent and simmering worries over North Korea, Reuters reported.
At close of trade, the Hang Seng index was down 2.14% at 28,224.80. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index fell 2.8% to 11,162.58. Chinese Internet giant Tencent dropped roughly 3 percent to a one-month low on profit-taking
China's main Shanghai Composite index closed down 0.29% at 3,294.1262 while its blue-chip CSI300 index ended down 0.6%.
Chip makers fell on profit taking despite the strong global semiconductor sales in October. MPI fell 70 sen to RM11.54 and Unisem 17 sen down to RM3.19. SAM Engineering was down 18 sen to RM7.10.
Hong Leong Bank was the top loser, down 82 sen to RM16.18 after the late surge on Tuesday and it wiped out 3.14 points from the KLCI. HLFG lost 46 sen to RM16.48.
Maybank fell 12 sen to RM9.26 and erased 2.29 points, RHB Bank 10 sen to RM4.80 while CIMB was flat at RM5.97. AmBank gained one sen to RM4.11 and Public Bank two sen higher at RM20.02.
Sime Darby Plantations staged a mild rebound, up 12 sen to RM4.87 – after three days of straight losses since its listing on Thursday. Sime Property up five sen to RM1.16. However, Sime Darby slipped five sen to RM2.20.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM3 to RM2,560 per tonne. IOI Corp lost four sen to RM4.46, PPB Group and KL Kepong two sen lower to RM16.78 and RM24.42. United Plantations fell the most, down 20 sen to RM28. Batu Kawan rose 14 sen to RM19.90.
As for consumer stocks, Henieken added 46 sen to RM18.10 and Nestle 22 sen higher at RM97.90.
US light crude oil fell 29 cents to US$57.33 and Brent was down 22 cents to US$62.64. Petronas Chemical fell seven sen toRM7.38, Petronas Dagangan six sen to RM24.50 but Petronas Gas gained six sen to RM16.16. Petron was the top gainer, up 78 sen to RM12.32.
Among the heavyweights, Genting Bhd
fell 11 sen to RM8.88, Genting Bhd added three sen to RM5.16, Tenaga lost two sen to RM15.62 and IHH four sen lower at RM5.60.
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