KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI weighed in Friday's morning session as global markets retreated on the back of greater trade protectionism following US President Donald Trump's announcement of steel and aluminium tariffs.
Steel counters such Ann Joo
, Southern Steel and Malaysia Steel Works, moved lower on the news. On the KLCI, Press Metal Aluminium recorded a 16 sen decline to RM5.63 at midday.
At 12.30pm, the benchmark index dropped 3.16 points to 1,857.7 points, with Hong Leong Bank leading the index lower.
Turnover was 1.5 billion shares with a value of RM1.03bil. There were 634 decliners versus 180 advancers and 368 counters unchanged.
Hong Leong Bank shaved 2.2 points off the KLCI with a 62 sen fall to RM18.88. Other banks fared better with Maybank rising two sen to RM10.46, RHB adding two sen to RM5.39 and Ambank retracing some of its losses earlier in the week by rising four sen to RM4.12.
Public Bank was unchanged at RM23 while CIMB was also trading flat at RM7.27
Another leading laggard on the 30-stock index was Maxis, falling nine sen to RM5.81, while Genting dropped 10 sen to RM9.02.
Nestle, however, lifted with a RM4.20 gain to RM127.30 while IHH Healthcare rose nine sen to RM6.09.
On the broader market, Dutch Lady gained RM1.10 to RM67.96, Uzma rose 11 sen to RM1.47 and Padini added nine sen to RM5.09.
HB Global was among the actively traded counters with a three sen drop to 25 sen, following a 250% jump in share price in the previous session.
Sapura Energy slipped back 1.5 sen to 63 sen while Asiaply put on 1.5 sen to 13.5 sen.
Oil prices were mixed on Friday as Trump's planned tariffs triggered a selloff in Asia while stocks in Cushing, Oklahoma, showed declining inventory.
WTI crude slipped back one sen to US$60.98 a barrel while Brent crude rose seven cents to US$63.90 a barrel.
In currencies, the ringgit benefited from the negative sentiment over the US dollar and strengthened 0.32% against the greenback to 3.9158.
However, it weakened 0.1% against the pound sterling at 5.3983 and marginally against the Singapore dollar at 2.9621.
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