KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips continued to lose ground early Friday, tracking the cautious key Asian markets on the US-China trade war worries while a bright spot was Sapura Energy
which rose in active trade after bagging RM1.8bil in contracts.
At 9.11am, the KLCI was down 6.31 points or 0.37% to 1,686.01. Turnover was 113.56 million shares valued at RM68.88mil. There were 107 gainers, 147 losers and 164 counters unchanged.
Asian shares were under pressure on signs US trade battles with China and many other countries are starting to chip away at corporate profits, with oil prices choppy ahead of major producers meeting to discuss raising output, Reuters reported.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was little changed in early trade, stuck barely above its six-month low hit on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei lost 1%.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell for an eighth straight session on Thursday and the S&P 500 lost 0.63%, with industrials and materials shares hit hard.
On the outlook for the KLCI, Kenanga Research said technically, the index remains bearishly biased at this juncture. Recent trend lines are highly negative, with key SMAs currently in a “Death Cross”, while the MACD having also formed a bearish crossover.
“From here, look towards supports at 1,680 (S1) and possibly 1,615 (S2). Should a turnaround occur, overhead resistances can be found at 1,720 (R1) and 1,760 (R20),” it said.
BAT fell 54 sen to RM35.54, KL Kepong 24 sen to RM23.54, Tenaga and PPB Group 18 sen each to RM13,76 and RM19.34, Hong Leong Bank 14 sen to RM17.76 while Sime Plantation and Maxis fell eight sen each to RM5.27 and RM5.49.
Superlon skidded 24 sen to RM1.28 in active trade after disappointing results, Magni-Tech fell 14 sen to RM5.07.
Sapura Energy rose three sen to 63 sen with 32.5 million shares done. RHB Research upgraded the oil and gas services company to Buy from Neutral, with an unchanged target price of 82 sen reflecting 37% upside after bagged contracts worth RM1.8bil.
Telekom, which was battered on news about a broadband price cut by 25% by year-end, eked out a three sen gain to RM3.17.
Petronas Dagangan was the top gainer, up 22 sen to RM24.34, F&N added 20 sen to RM38.50, CCM 12 sen to RM2.40, Serba Dinamik eight sen to RM3.23 and Taiworks 7.5 sen higher at 91 sen.
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