Bursa continues to retrace losses, ringgit slides against USD

KUALA LUMPUR: The local bourse continued to retrace losses as buying interest returned to the market following the sell-down earlier in the week.

The benchmark FBM KLCI rose over three points to 1,839.74 points on the back of gains in Axiata and MISC. Trading volume was slower than usual with 1.07 billion shares worth RM724mil exchanging hands. THere were 314 advancers to 266 decliners and 548 counters unchanged.

Leading the advance, Axiata rose eight sen to RM5.48 while MISC gained 15 sen to RM7.32.

Banking stocks mostly weighed with CIMB dipping one sen to RM7.07, Hong Leong Bank slipping two sen to RM17.82 and RHB dropping three sen to RM5.17. Meanwhile, Hong Leong Financial Group grew 30 sen to RM18.74 and Public Bank added six sen to RM22 while Maybank and Ambank were unchanged. 

Plantation counters were also mixed, led by PPB adding six sen to RM17.48 and Sime Darby Plantation moving up one sen to RM5.51. IOI slid one sen to RM4.67 while KL Kepong dropped eight sen to RM25.12.

Nestle, meanwhile, continued its winning ways - adding RM1.10 to RM116.10. Petronas Gas also rose 26 sen to RM17.88.

On the wider market, Top Glove put on 27 sen to RM9.27, DKSH advanced 20 sen to RM4 and Hong Leog Industries added 20 sen to RM10.02.

Among decliners, Tasek slid 16 sen to RM9.50 while Hartalega dropped 16 sen to RM11.34.

Oil prices continued its slide as soaring US output undermined OPEC's efforts to tighten markets and prop up prices, Reuters reported. 

WTI crude fell 27 cents to US$61.53 a barrel and Brent crude dropped 17 cents to US$65.34 a barrel.

In currencies, the ringgit continued to lose ground against the firming greenback despite rising against other major currencies. It weakened 0.4% against the US dollar to 3.9258, but strengthened 0.3% against the Singapore dollar to 2.9560 and firmed up marginally against the pound sterling at 5.4483.