KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips closed sharply lower on Tuesday as profit taking picked up pace on heavyweights while Perdana Petroleum had another tough day, hitting limit-down for the second day.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI fell 14.69 points or 0.84% to 1,736.95 – giving up nearly all the gains from last week's window dressing activities.
Turnover rose to 3.18 billion shares valued at RM2.91bil. The broader market weakened with decliners beating advancers more than five to three or 530 losers to 306 gainers and 470 counters unchanged.
The ringgit rose against the US dollar, euro and Singapore dollar. It edged up 0.02% to the greenback at 4.0805 and gained 0.06% to the euro and advanced 0.1% to the Singapore dollar at 3.0262.
Hong Kong stocks followed Asian markets higher after a record-beating run on Wall Street amid optimism over the likely passage of US tax reforms, Reuters reported.
The Hang Seng index rose 0.7% to 29,253.66 and the Hang Seng China Enterprises index gained 1.11% to 11,541.88. China's main Shanghai Composite index closed up 0.88% at 3,296 while its blue-chip CSI300 index ended up 1.26%. MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was firmer by 0.44% while Japan's Nikkei index closed down 0.15%.
Tenaga Nasional, whose dividend of 44 sen a share went ex, fell four sen to RM14.90 but it was enough to knock off 4.83 points from the KLCI. Genting Bhd
fell 25 sen to RM8.83 and erased 1.71 points while Genting Malaysia lost 14 sen to RM5.39 and wiped out 1.47 points.
Public Bank fell 20 sen to RM20.50, RHB Bank nine sen to RM4.99, Hong Leong Bank eight sen to RM16.86, CIMB four sen to RM6.25 and Maybank shed one sen to RM9.49 but AmBank rose two sen to RM4.35.
US light crude oil rose 32 cents to US$57.48 and Brent gained 11 cents to US$63.52.
Petron fell 54 sen to RM12.88, the steepest decline in months. Sapura Energy was unchanged at 73.5 sen with 143.6 million shares done. Hengyuan gained 10 sen to RM13.98.
Perdana hit limit down, tumbling 30 sen to 36 sen – the lowest since June 2012. The oil and gas services provider had reported net losses and resumed trading on Monday after meeting the public shareholding spread.
Petronas Gas and Petronas Dagangan fell four sen each to RM16.40 and RM24.38 but Petronas Chemicals gained four sen to RM7.49.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM9 to RM2,519 per tonnes. Among the plantations, IOI Corp fell seven sen to RM4.34, PPB Group rose two sen to RM16.96 and KL Kepong gained four sen to RM24.56.
Sime Darby lost six sen to RM2.05, Sime Plantation was flat at RM5.30 while Sime Property rose three sen to RM1.43.
However, glove makers provided some optimism. Hartalega jumped 68 sen to RM10.72 to a record high. Top Glove gained 54 sen to RM7.48, which was another record high after posting a strong set of earnings. Kossan added 34 sen to RM8.30.
As for chip makers, MPI fell 28 sen to RM12.02 but Unisem added 15 sen to RM3.53.
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