Banks drag KLCI into the red, DRB-Hicom in focus

KUALA LUMPUR: CIMB, RHB Bank and Maybank dragged the FBM KLCI into the red at Tuesday's close on concerns about their exposure to Singapore's financially distressed oil and gas company Swiber.

However, it was not all doom and gloom as diversified group DRB-Hicom shares and its call warrants jumped in very active trade as traders pushed the counters on expecations of fresh corporate news. Also trading higher were consumer stocks while MAHB rebounded.

At 5pm, the FBM KLCI was down 5.00 points or 0.3% to 1,660.23. Turnover was 1.92 billion shares valued at RM1.84bil. Decliners beat advancers 491 to 277 while 362 counters were unchanged.

The ringgit weakened against several key currencies, falling to 4.0425 to the US dollar from 4.0245; it was lower against the pound sterling at 5.3604 from 5.3010 and declined against the Singapore dollar at 3.0189 from 3.0009. It was 4.5365 to the euro from 4.4857.

RHB Bank fell 15 sen to RM4.94 and erased 1.02 points from the KLCI, CIMB was down nine sen to RM4.41 and wiped out 1.34 points and Maybank's five sen fall to RM7.98 shed 0.85 of a point. 

Banks, including Maybank and RHB Bank, may recognise provisioning for their exposure to distressed Singapore oilfield services firm Swiber Holdings which is seeking to operate under judicial management. 

However, Public Bank rose 12 sen to RM19.80, Hong Leong Bank four sen to RM13.26 and AmBank three sen to RM4.42.

MBSB rose 5.5 sen to 75.5 sen and it was the most active with 99.50 million shares done, spurred by news about  seasoned investor Tan Sri Chua Ma Yu raising his stake to 8.97% from 6.06% through subscription of the company’s rights issue. 

Panasonic Malaysia was the top loser as profit taking picked up pace again though volume was 121,200 shares done. It lost RM1.34 to RM37.78.

Consumer stocks were among the gainers. BAT rose 56 sen to RM50.56, F&N 44 sen to RM26.34 and Dutch Lady gained 36 sen to RM64.

Crude palm oil for third-month delivery added RM12 to RM2,339 per tonne. As for plantations, Genting Plantations fell 14 sen to RM10.44, KL Kepong six sen to RM23.14, IOI Corp three sen to RM4.25 and PPB Group shed two sen to RM16.06. Sime Darby was flat at RM7.60.

US light crude oil rose 25 cents to US$40.31 and Brent 35 cents to US$42.49 after skidding the previous day as stockpiles rose. Petronas Gas lost six sen to RM22.10, Petronas Chemicals fell five sen to RM6.59 and Petronas Dagangan two sen to RM23.28. SK Petro was down three sen to RM1.40.

MAHB rebounded 16 sen to RM6.17, Tenaga rose two sen to RM14.40, Genting Malaysia was flat at RM4.40 and Genting Bhd lost four sen to RM8.18.

As for telcos, Axiata lost five sen to RM5.69, Digi one sen to RM4.95, Telekom was flat at RM6.82 and Maxis up one sen to RM6.06.

Last Thursday, DRB-Hicom told shareholders its plans to strengthen its logistics core business and reduce its dependency on the property and automobile businesses.

DRB-Hicom rose nine sen to RM1.02, the call warrants, C19 rose 5.5 sen to 11.5 sen, C20 added one sen to 3.5 sen and C21 four sen to 10.5 sen.

Among the key regional markets,

Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.47% to 16,391.45;

CSI 300 rose 0.39% to 3,189.05;

Shanghai’s Composite Index added 0.61% to 2,971.28;

Shenzhen Composite advanced 0.73% to 1,926.69;

Taiwan’s Taiex lost 0.13% to 9,068.76;

South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.52% to 2,019.03; and

Singapore’s Straits Times Index lost 1.24% to 2,856.67.

Spot gold rose US$5.56 to US$1,358.71.