Genting slumped 15 sen to RM6.80 and erased 1.01 points while GentingM was down three sen to RM3.25 following the recent corporate news which were viewed as negative by investors.
KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI closed lower on Wednesday as funds took profit on Digi, Hartalega
and IHH Healthcare amid a weaker broader market but stocks in focus were Bumi Armada, FGV Holdings and Supermax.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down 6.26 points or 0.34% to 1,820.64. Turnover was 2.69 billion shares valued at RM2.63bil. Decliners beat advancers 629 to 355 while 337 counters were unchanged.
Global stocks faltered on Wednesday as optimism over a US-Mexico trade deal faded with investors anxious about Canada’s acquiescence and eyeing a deadline for the next round of China-U.S. tariffs next week, Reuters reported.
MSCI's world equity index, which tracks shares in 47 countries, edged down 0.02% from the 5 1/2- month highs it hit after Mexico and the US struck their deal.
At Bursa, two stocks which were under the spotlight were Bumi Armada, after posting net losses, FGV Holdings and glove maker Supermax which saw a late sell-off.
Bumi Armada fell 14.5 sen to a December 2016 low of 52.5 sen with 68 million shares done. It posted net losses of RM585.48mil due to impairment for its Armada Kraken floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel and net allowance for impairment losses.
AmInvest Research downgraded its recommendation on Bumi Armada to Hold from Buy with a lowered fair value of 60 sen a share (from an earlier RM1.22/share), based on a 50% discount to its revised sum-of-parts of RM1.21 a share and implied a 30% discount to book value.
FGV closed down 10 sen to RM1.55 with 16.49 million shares done after after reports said it was investigating several of its business practices following “adverse findings” from an earlier probe into its investments.
Supermax skidded 43 sen to RM3.92 with 4.62 million shares traded.
Among the KLCI stocks, Digi fell eight sen to RM4.70 and erased 1.8 points from the KLCI. Maxis fell four sen to RM5.81, Telekom two sen to RM3.57 and Axiata one sen lower at RM4.81.
IHH fell eight sen to RM5.55 and erased 1.18 points, Tenaga shed two sen to RM15.70 while Genting Malaysia was two sen lower at RM5.16.
Glove maker Hartalega lost 28 sen to RM7 and wiped out 1.66 points from the index.
US light crude oil rose 22 cents to US$68.75 and Brent gained 16 cents to US$76.11.
Among the oil and gas stocks, Dialog slipped 10 sen to RM3.43 on profit taking. However, Petronas Dagangan rose 14 sen to RM27.16, Petronas Gas gained 16 sen to RM18.80 and Peteonas Chemical added one sen to RM9.57.
Sapura Energy halted its slide to end unchanged at 35 sen after the recent sell-off triggered by its RM4bil cash call.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM11 to RM2,221.
As for plantations, IOI Corp lost six sen to RM4.49, KL Kepong added two sen to RM24.80 and PPB Group eight sen higher at RM16.82.
Sime Plantation recouped part of the previous day's losses, adding four sen to RM5.34 and Sime Darby edged up one sen to RM2.56 while Sime Property rose two sen to RM1.25.
Among the banks and financial stocks, HLFG rose 56 sen to RM19.20 and giving the KLCI a 1.15 point boost, RHB Bank added eight sen to RM25.04, Public Bank four sen to RM25.04, CIMB one sen to RM6.09, Maybank was flat at RM10 and Hong Leong Bank shed two sen to RM20.28 on profit taking after its record earnings.
The ringgit fell 0.21% against the US dollar to 4.1055 and shed 0.01% to the pound sterling to 5.2865 while it was 0.03% lower at 4.7904 against the euro. It edged up 0.01% to 3.0049 against the Singapore dollar.
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