KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips closed off Friday's low on some buying support for banks including Maybank, RHB Bank and Ambank while all key Asian markets closed lower, led by China.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI was down 5.93 points or 0.34% to 1,753.07. Turnover was 2.34 billion shares valued at RM3.51bil. There were 365 gainers, 450 losers and 460 counters unchanged
Analysts expected some investors to take money off the table after the 21 points jump on Thursday.
China stocks fell on Friday, leaving main indexes down for the week, as investors responded to China's hike in market interest rates by taking profits in sectors that have had robust gains this year, Reuters reported.
MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.41% while Japan's Nikkei index closed down 0.62%.
The ringgit rose against 0.12% against the US dollar to 4.0795 but slipped 0.1% to the pound sterling at 5.4907 and shed 0.25% to the euro to 4.8148 and lost 0.25% to the Singapore dollar at 3.0349.
Bitcoin rose US$821 to US$17,325. Bank Negara Malaysia deputy governor Abdul Rasheed Ghaffour had on Friday cautioned the public about crypto currencies.
"If you look at the price, it is clear that it is a bubble... Anything with high return has high risk,” he said.
At Bursa, BAT fell RM2.08 to RM38.12 while Heineken fell 20 sen to RM18.46.
Among the banks and finance stocks, HLFG fell 90 sen to RM17 and wiped out 1.83 points from the KLCI while Hong Leong Bank lost 42 sen to RM16.66 and erased 1.6 points.
CIMB fell six sen to RM6.31, Public Bank four sen to RM20.76 but Maybank rose five sen to RM9.54, AmBank six sen to RM4.46 and RHB Bank 12 sen to RM5.12.
Genting fell 26 sen to RM8.99 and wiped out 1.78 points, Genting Malaysia four sen lower at RM5.65 but Tenaga rose two sen to RM15.44 and MISC climbed 12 sen to RM7.24. IHH was the biggest positive mover, up 10 sen to RM5.81 and nudged the KLCI up 1.46 points.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery rose RM56 to RM2,508 per tonne. Far East fell the most, down 26 sen to RM8.66 and United Plantations lost 20 sen to RM28.20, IOI Corp six sen lower at RM4.41, KL Kepong lost two sen to RM24.46 while PPB Group was flat at RM16.90.
Sime Planbtations lost two sen to RM5.25 but Sime Darby gained two sen to RM2.12 and Sime Property added six sen to RM1.42.
US light crude oil advanced 21 cents to US$57.25 but Brent slipped one cent to US$63.30. Petronas Dagangan fell 20 sen to RM24.30, Petronas Gas six sen lower at RM16.24 and Petronas Chemicals unchanged at RM7.45.
UMW Oil and Gas fell 0.5 sen to 29 sen while Sapura Energy
fell to a record low of 78.5 sen, down two sen in active trade.
CIMB Equities Research expects the Sapura Energy group to register core net losses for the next three forecast years, as drilling losses more than offset expected profits from the engineering and construction (E&C) and energy arms.
As for telcos, Telekom lost six sen to RM6.10, Axiata four sen to RM5.32, Maxis shed one sen to RM5.93 while Digi was flat at RM4.77.
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