KLCI nears 1,700, lowest since Feb 2017, as Public Bank falls on late selling

KUALA LUMPUR: The rout continued on Bursa Malaysia with the FBM KLCI nearing the key 1,700 support level on Wednesday on late selling of Public Bank.

The market, which started off on a strong positive note could not sustain the gains as foreign funds continued to take out money and the selling stretched more than 30 days.

By 5pm, the FBM KLCI was down 5.61 points or 0.33% to 1,709.75 – the lowest since Feb 28, 2017. Turnover was 1.85 billion shares valued at RM2.21bil. There were 439 gainers, 356 losers and 407 counters unchanged.

Most key Asian markets were higher except for the Jakarta Composite which fell 1.83% when trading resumed.

Hong Kong stocks tracked Asian shares to end higher on Wednesday, rebounding after the previous session's rout, as the surge in ZTE Corp helped sooth immediate panic over a Sino-US trade war, Reuters reported.

At Bursa, Public Bank fell 58 sen to RM22.78 – the lowest since mid-March – and erased 4.01 points from the KLCI. Hong Leong Bank was 20 sen lower at RM18.46, RHB Bank fell 11 sen to RM5.52, Maybank four sen to RM9.24 but CIMB rose one sen to RM5.87.

Crude palm oil for third month delivery rose RM2 to RM2,265 per tonne.

KL Kepong slid 76 sen to RM23.54, IOI Corp lost nine sen to RM4.57 and PPB Group six sen lower at RM19.24.

Sime Plantation was flat at RM5.45, Sime Daerby rose two sen to RM2.47 and Sime Property unchanged at RM1.23. 

Among the consumer stocks, Nestle fell 80 sen to RM146.20, Dutch Lady 30 sen lower at RM67.50 but BAT rose 78 sen to RM36.66 and F&N 46 sen higher at RM37.98.

Mi Equipment, which made its debut on the Main Market, closed up 12 sen to RM1.54 with 73.6 million shares done.

Vitrox fell 29 sen to RM5.58 and KESM 22 sen lower at RM16.84.

Oil prices rose, supported by a drop in US commercial crude inventories and the loss of storage capacity in Libya, with investors cautious ahead of a biannual meeting of OPEC exporters to decide production policy, Reuters reported.

Benchmark Brent crude was up 50 cents at US$75.58 a barrel by 0835 GMT. US light crude was 50 cents higher at US$65.57.

Petronas Gas fell six sen to RM17.22, Petroinas Chemical climbed three sen to RM8.39 and Petronas Dagangan was up 20 sen to RM24.86. Dialog was flat at RM3.18.

As for telcos, Telekom fell three sen to RM3.63 but Axiata and Digi added three sen each to RM4.37 and RM4.36.  Maxis fell eight sen to RM5.57 but Astro rose seven sen to RM1.67.

The ringgit fell 0.04% to the US dollar to 4.0043 and shed 0.09% to the euro to 4.6283 and was down 0.06% to the Singapore dollar at 2.9484. However, it rose 0.16% to the pound sterling at 5.2697.