KLCI slides on trade fears, Nestle snaps four days of gains

KUALA LUMPUR: The local benchmark index ended the morning session lower, weighed down by Nestle as it snapped four consecutive sessions of gains.

At 12.30pm, stocks on the FBM KLCI dropped 6.20 points to 1,857.83 points amid a broader dip in Asian markets as US President Donald Trump fired his Secretary of State and sought to impose hefty tariffs to spark more worries of rising protectionism.

Turnover on the local market was 1.29 billion shares with a value of RM860.12mil. There were 585 decliners versus 219 advancers and 361 counters unchanged.

Consumer goods giant Nestle fell RM8.90 to RM148.50 to shave 3.4 points off the index.

Maxis dropped 10 sen to RM5.79 while MISC dipped 16 sen to RM6.93.

Among gainers, Hong Leong Bank rose 30 sen to RM19.32, Tenaga Nasional rose four sen to RM15.66 and Genting Malaysia added three sen to RM5.26.

On the broader market, Dutch Lady gained 68 sen to RM71.82, British American Tobacco rose 32 sen to RM27.30 and Padini added 12 sen to RM4.88.

Decliners included UMW falling 53 sen to RM5.96, Hengyuan slipping 41 sen to RM8.63 and Carlsberg dropping 34 sen to RM20.44.

Oil prices were relatively stable on Wednesday following two days of declines. WTI crude rose four cents to US$60.75 a barrel while Brent crude slid seven cents to US$64.57 a barrel.

In currencies, the ringgit rose marginally against the US dollar to 3.8963. It weakened 0.59% against the pound sterling to 5.4499 and 0.14% to the Singapore dollar to 2.9734.