Bears on the prowl on Bursa Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR: Banks and Genting Bhd
dragged the FBM KLCI into the red at midday on Thursday making it the worst performer among the Asian markets while overall sentiment at Bursa Malaysia was cautious after Ekovest hit limit-down earlier.
At 12.30pm, the KLCI was down 14.58 points or 0.82% to 1,757.93. Turnover was two billion shares valued at RM1.31bil.
The fallout from the Ministry of Finance's (MoF) move to call off the Bandar Malaysia deal saw Iskandar Waterfront City (IWCity) seeking a trading suspension.
IWCity is a unit of Iskandar Waterfront Holdings Sdn Bhd (IWH) and it is controlled by Tan Sri Lim Kang Hoo. Ekovest, which is linked to Lim, hit limit-down to RM1.01.
The negative news impacted investor sentiment across the broader market. Decliners beat advancers 706 to 158 while 305 counters were unchanged.
China stocks were flat at midday on Thursday, as strong gains in small-caps offset a survey showing softer services sector activity which raised concerns over growing economic risks, Reuters reported.
The ringgit weakened against the US dollar to 4.3245 from the previous close of 4.3200 but it firmed up against the pound sterling to 5.5684 from 5.5780. It rose against the Singapore dollar to 3.0954 fron 3.0961 but slipped against the euro to 4.7115 from 4.7030.
At Bursa, Ekovest fell 26 sen to RM1.17 with 181.45 million shares done while the warrants lost 17 sen to 96 sen with 24.21 million units done.
Public Bank fell 16 sen to RM19.98 and wiped out 1.01 points from the KLCI, AmBank 14 sen lower at RM5.46, RHB Bank 10 sen lower at RM5.42, Maybank six sen to RM9.21 and CIMB five sen lower at RM5.76.
Genting Bhd lost 13 sen to RM9.82 and erased 0.79 of a point while Genting Malaysiua lost nine sen to RM5.77 and wiped out 0.87 of a point. Tenaga lost four sen to RM13.90.
Among the telcos, Axiata lost four sen to RM5.17, Digi one sen to RM5 while Maxis and Telekom were flat at RM6.46 and RM6.47.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery rose RM9 to RM2,531 per tonne. PPB Group rose six sen to RM17, IOI Corp added two sen to RM4.53, KL Kepong and Sime were unchanged at RM24.60 and RM9.30.
Property company MKH shed five sen to RM2.33 but MKH-OR fell 28 sen to RM4.97.
As for consumer stocks, BAT fell 82 sen to RM45.32 and Ajinomoto 14 sen lower at RM18.12 but Dutch Lady added 60 sen to RM58.78 amd Nestle 12 sen to RM82.90.
Poultry company CAB Cakaran added eight sen to RM2.69.
Oil prices fell with US light crude down 11 cents to US$47.71 and Brent dipped eight cents to US$50.71.
Petronas Gas rose 10 sen to RM19.10 and Petronas Dagangan four sen higher at RM24 while Petronas Chemicals shed two sen to RMRM7.13.
Among the key regional markets,
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.31% to 24,618.58;
CSI 300 shed 0.02% to 3,412.49;
Shanghai’s Composite Index dipped 0.07% to 3,133.21;
Hang Seng China Enterprise fell 0.99% to 10,073.10;
Taiwan’s Taiex edged up 0.02% to 9,957.56
South Korea’s Kospigained 0.64% to 2,233.78 while
Singapore’s Straits Times Index fell 0.45% to 3,223.27.
Spot gold rose US$1.82 to US$1,239.99.
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