KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia started Monday on a cautious note as tolled highway operators Gamuda, Litrak and IJM fell on news about the government’s move to take over the expressways.
At 9.15am, the KLCI was down 1.26 points or 0.07% to 1,720.16. Turnover was 314.78 million shares valued at RM175.86mil. There were 202 gainers, 156 losers and 216 counters unchanged.
Asian share markets looked well set after US President Donald Trump confirmed he would delay a planned increase on Chinese imports as talks between the two sides were making "substantial progress", Reuters reported.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.2% to the highest since October, and is up 10% for the year so far. Japan's Nikkei climbed 0.5% to levels last seen in mid-December. E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 edged up 0.3%, while Treasury futures slipped.
Gamuda fell 39 sen to RM2.65, Litrak 39 sen to RM4.21 and IJM 11 sen to RM1.88.
The federal government’s plan to take over the tolled highways will be on a willing buyer-willing seller basis, according to CIMB Equities Research’s brief check with Gamuda Bhd
.
In its research note issued on Monday, CIMB Research said at this juncture, Gamuda foresees no risk of forced acquisition or expropriation.
Carlsberg lost 28 sen to RM24.70 as investors took profit, Aeon Credit lost 20 sen to RM16.80 and Axiata 19 sen RM4.06 while Elsfot was down 12 sen to RM1.07 and HLFG 10 sen to RM19.90.
International Brent crude oil futures rose 14 cents to US$67.26 a barrel at 0005 GMT while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures advanced 11 cents to US$57.38, Reuters reported.
Petronas Dagangan fell 26 sen to RM26.54 with 100 shares done while Hengyuan lost 16 sen to RM5.87. Petronas Chemical gained eight sen to RM9.11.
Dayang Enterprise surged 24.5 sen to RM1.04 and it was the most active with 54 million shares done while Perdana added 4.5 sen to 33.5 sen and PEnergy hit limit up 30 sen to 72 sen.
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