KUALA LUMPUR: Consumer stocks were battered on Thursday with Nestle sustaining a second day of losses on Thursday after the recent rally while Sapura Energy led penny oil and gas stocks higher in active trade.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI was down 11.79 points or 0.63% to 1,845.27. Turnover was 2.88 billion shares valued at RM2.47bil. Decliners led advancers five to four or 514 losers to 411 gainers and 400 stocks unchanged.
Key Asian markets were mixed with Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea the gainers but China and Singapore among the decliners as threat of a trade war loomed larger.
US President Donald Trump has recently imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, sparking threats of retaliation from some trade partners, and called on China to cut its trade surplus with the US by US$100bil.
Ravi Menon, the managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said that there is now a real risk of a trade war that could deal a devastating blow to the global economy, according to Reuters.
"There is a real risk now that that (trade war) would happen because these things are not easy to control. And while everyone agrees that a trade war is bad, sometimes you can't help but retaliate when you are hit with tariffs," he said at the Asia Money2020 conference in Singapore,
The ringgit weakened against several major currencies. It fell 0.31% to the US dollar at 3.9180, down 0.47% to the pound sterling at 5.4729 and down 0.31% lower to the euro at 4.8451 while it tumbled 0.44% against the Singapore dollat at 2.9917.
At Bursa, Nestle fell RM10 to RM131 with 615,200 shares done and erasing 3.81 points from the KLCI.
Dutch Lady lost RM2.46 to RM67.54, F&N skidded RM1.82 to RM31, Ajinomoto fell RM1.36 to RM22.54. Carlsberg fell RM1.08 to RM19.54 and Heineken 76 sen lower at RM21.98.
As for banks and finance stocks, Hong Leong Bank fell 52 sen to RM18.78 and HLFG was down 36 sen to RM18.74, RHB Bank 14 sen to RM5.25, Maybank eight sen to RM10.36, CIMB shed two sen to RM7.22 while Public Bank was flat at RM23.
Axiata fell 20 sen to RM5.20 and erased 2.94 points from the KLCI. Maxis lost 11 sen to RM5.64, Digi was down six sen to RM4.65 but Telekom rose two sen to RM5.59.
Sime Darby fell three sen to RM2.62 and Sime Plantation four sen lower at RM5.52 while Sime Property unchanged at RM1.41.
UMW recovered after the selldown the previous day when it announced its rights issue to raise RM1.1bil. It rose 28 sen to RM6.18.
US light crude oil rose five cents to US$61.01 but Brent crude lost five cents to US$64.84. Petronas Dagangan was flat at RM24.74, Petronas Chemicals rose five sen to RM8.15 and Petronas Gas 10 sen higher at RM18.
Hengyuan was the top gainer for the day, up 61 sen to RM9.14 and Petron 33 sen to RM10.
Sapura Energy which had fallen to fresh record lows in recent days, staged a rebound, climbing eight sen to 49 sen with 313 million shares done.
OMW-OG added two sen to 32 sen, Sumatec one sen to seven sen.