Axiata leads decline on Bursa Malaysia, oil prices near four-year highs

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia slipped slightly in Tuesday's morning session given the negative sentiment surrounding the escalation of the US-China tariffs war and prospects for global growth.

Key regional markets were mixed, with declines led by Chinese markets on their first day of trading after a holiday-extended weekend.

Despite the bearish mood, the local market held relatively steady as stocks on the exchange were quite evenly split between gainers and losers.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 2.57 points to 1,797.60. Turnover was 988.25 million shares worth RM703.56mil. There were 311 advancers versus 337 deciners and 371 counters unchanged.

Axiata saw the biggest fall in the morning session, losing 16 sen to RM4.61.

Genting Malaysia shed four sen o RM5.02 while TNB dropped four sen to RM15.48.

Banks were mostly unchanged although CIMB slid two sen to RM6.01 on news of group chairman Datuk Seri Nazir Razak's resignation later this year. The stock had fallen as much as four sen earlier in the trading session. 

Top-performing stocks of the day included Petronas Dangangan rising 20 sen to RM26.56 and Petron Malaysia adding 18 sen to RM8.38.

Pinehill Pacific, whose share price had jumped nearly four-fold over the previous two sessions on news of its sale of its Perak assets for RM414mil finally gave up some gains. At midday, it had slipped 8.5 sen to 45.5 sen.

Scientex slid eight sen to RM8.74, Vitrox lost six sen to RM7.74 and MPI shed eight sen to RM12.82.

Oil prices on Tuesday were within reach of four-year highs hit in the previous session, as looming US sanctions against Iran and unwillingness by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to raise output supported the market, Reuters reported.

WTI crude grew 15 cents to US$72.23 a barrel while Brent crude added 23 cents to US$81.43 a barrel.

In currencies, the ringgit slipped 0.15% against the greenback at 4.1350. It was marginally higher against the pound sterling at 5.4138 and the Singapore at 3.0265.