KUALA LUMPUR: High Covid-19 cases and fears of a lockdown sent the FBM KLCI to a three-month low on Friday with the broader market continuing to be weak.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down 13.15 points or 0.83% to 1,562.17. Turnover was 7.52 billion shares valued at RM4.07bil. There were 881 decliners, 330 advancers and 386 stocks unchanged.
A total of 6,493 cases were reported on Friday with 50 deaths ahead of an anticipated decision from the government whether to impose a full lockdown in Selangor due to the record number of infections.
Among the oil and gas stocks, Petronas Dagangan fell 54 sen to RM18.70, Petronas Gas 26 sen to RM15.62 and Petronas Chemicals four sen to RM7.90. Dialog lost three sen to RM2.88.
US light crude oil was unchanged at US$62.05 but Brent gained 31 cents to US$65.41, Reuters reported.
Among the plantations, PPB Group lost 24 sen to RM18.50, KL Kepong four sen to RM22.22 and Sime Plantation two sen lower at RM4.43 but IOI Corp gained three sen to RM4.10,
As for glove makers, Hartalega
was down 16 sen to RM9.58 and Supermax nine sen to RM4.76 while Top Glove was down six sen to RM5.31.
Among telcos, Axiata lost 15 sen to RM3.40, Telekom eight sen to RM5.73 and Maxis three sen lower at RM4.54 but Digi added eight sen to RM4.19.
CIMB lost nine sen to RM4.16, Public Bank five sen to RM4.15, RHB Bank shed one sen to RM5.17 and Maybank three sen to RM8.24 but HL Bank added six sen to RM17.64.
However, Genting climbed 20 sen to RM4.77 and GentingM six sen higher RM2.65.
Consumer stocks headed the losers list with F&N down 78 sen to a low of RM26.22, Dutch Lady 50 sen to RM34.10 and Carlsberg 42 sen to RM20.88.
Widetec lost 38 sen to RM3 as traders took profit after the stock hit record high on Thursday and prompted a query from Bursa Securities.
On the external front, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.78% to 28,317, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index edged up 0.03% to 28,458 and Singapore’s Straits Times Index gained 0.26% to 3,117.89.
However, the Shanghai Composite fell 0.58% to 3,486.56 and South Korea’s Kospi 0.19% lower at 3,156.22.
Beset by rising regulatory pressure, bitcoin hovered around US$40,000 on Friday, pausing its attempt to recover from this week's massive plunge, Reuters reported.
Bitcoin was little changed on the day at $40,256 on the Bitstamp exchange. That is roughly 30% above its Wednesday low, but below its 200-day moving average. Rival cryptocurrency ether also came under pressure, falling 1% to $2,745.
