KUALA LUMPUR: Some fund selling of Public Bank, Tenaga Nasional and IOI Corp pushed the FBM KLCI into the red on Friday in the absence of any strong positive leads. The ringgit weakened against the major currencies on late selling pressure.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down 5.11 points or 0.31% to 1,638.63 and year-to-date it was down 3.07%. Turnover was reduced to 1.75 billion shares valued at RM1.66bil as investors' interest waned.
The broader market was also weaker with 1.7 losers to one gainer or 498 decliners to 288 advancers while 356 counters were unchanged.
As for the ringgit, it fell 0.11% to the US dollar to 4.1698, down 0.08% to the pound sterling to 5.2796 and 0.03% lower against the euro at 4.7031. It shed 0.07% to the Singapore dollar to 3.0496.
Greatech, which was listed on the ACE Market on Thursday, extended its gains, climbing seven sen to 81 sen in active trade.
Lafarge gave up nearly all its gains from the previous day after a research house poured cold water on rumours of a cement price hike. It fell 26 sen to RM4.08 – but still above the YTL Cement takeover offer of RM3.75 which closed on Thursday.
Another cement player, Tasek managed to hold on to the previous day's gains, ending unchanged at RM5.66.
Building material products including Hume fell 14 sen to RM1.44 while its loan stocks also fell by the same margin to RM1.96.
As for 7-Eleven, it managed to recoup most of the early losses where it fell more than 15% and forcing the suspension of the short selling. It ended the day unchanged at RM1.50.
The cautious outlook for banks due to slower loan growth continued to weigh on bank stocks.
Public Bank fell 30 sen to RM23.12 and erased 2.02 points from the KLCI, HL Bank was down 10 sen to RM18.809, CIMB four sen to RM5.28, AmBank two sen lower at RM4.41 while RHB Bank and Maybank were unchanged at RM5.70 and RM8.96.
Tenaga extended its decline, falling 14 sen to RM12.18 and wiping out 1.38 points, Press Metal
eight sen to RM4.29 but GentingM added three sen to RM3.23 and Hapseng 15 sen to RM9.92. MAHB ended the day 25 sen higher at RM8.17.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery rose RM12 to RM2,020 per tonne.
As for plantations, IOI Corp lost seven sen to RM4.17 but KL Kepong rose four sen to RM24.60, PPB Group six sen to RM18.70, Sime Plantation eked out a three sen gain to RM4.67.
US light crude oil reversed into the red, falling 23 cents to US$52.05 while Brtent lost 18 cents to US$61.13.
Petronas Gas lost 16 sen to RM17.60, Dialog two sen toRM3.25, Petronas Dagangan was flat at RM25.60 but Petronas Chemical gained three sen to RM8.34.
Among the telcos, Maxis added five sen to RM5.58, Axiata three sen to RM4.73 but Digi shed one sen to RM4.87.
On the external front, the Hong Kong stock market fell for the third straight session on Friday and pared of some its weekly gains, as China reported lacklustre industrial production data. The Hang Seng index was down 0.7% at 27,118.53.
China stocks ended weaker, as investors kept a cautious stance ahead of data that was released after market hours, while US tariff threats continued to weigh. The Shanghai Composite index was down 1% at at 2,881.97, but still ended up 1.9% for the week. The blue-chip CSI300 index closed 0.8% lower, but 2.5% higher week-on-week.
Singapore's Straits Times Index lost 0.18%, Taiwan's Taiex 0.34% lower but Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.4%.
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