KUALA LUMPUR: Key Asian markets closed lower, with Bursa Malaysia following suit on Thursday after the US political crisis loomed over the proposed pro-growth policies promised by President Donald Trump.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down 8.48 points or 0.48% to 1,767.17. Turnover was 2.99 billion shares valued at RM2.64bil. There were 317 gainers, 625 losers and 379 counters unchanged.
Foreign funds were seen taking profit for the second day, though net selling was RM11.8mil and local institutions stepped up their net selling to RM54.7mil. Retail investors jumped in and were net buyers at RM66.5mil.
Hong Kong stocks followed others in Asia lower on Thursday as political turmoil in Washington knocked Wall Street and dented risk appetites in global markets, Reuters reported.
Equities in Asia took cues from New York, where the Dow and S&P 500 both sank about 1.8% overnight.
The ringgit closed lower against the key currencies, sliding 0.72% against the pound sterling to 5.6355 from the previous close of 5.5954. It fell 0.49% versus the euro to 4.8166 from 4.7930.
The ringgit also slipped 0.1% against the US dollar to 4.3280 from 4.3235 and weakened by 0.34% against the Singapore dollar to 3.1104 from 3.1000.
On a longer-term horizon, StanChart Research pointed out on Thursday that for the ringgit -- based on the scale of portfolio outflows in the past four years -- there was significant room to catch up, which should support further ringgit gains.
“While we currently forecast a return to ‘fair value’ of around 4.10 for US$-ringgit only in in the first half of 2018, risks of this happening sooner have clearly increased,” it said in a research note.
At Bursa, investors were seen taking some money from the table with Axiata down 17 sen to RM5.23 and erasing 2.59 points from the KLCI, Digi and Maxis shed three sen each to RM4.99 and RM6.49 while Telekom was flat at RM6.45.Time dotCom continued to lost ground, sliding 22 sen to RM8.93.
Genting Bhd
lost 23 sen to RM9.74 and wiped out 1.47 points from the KLCI. Genting Malaysian climbed five sen to RM5.81.
Genting Group said its proposed Resorts World Las Vegas (RWLV) was expected to see full construction starting in the third quarter of this year, aiming for opening in 2020.
MRCB's move to carry out a cash call to raise RM2.2bil did not go well with investors especially on Thursday due to the negative newsflow. MRCB fell in active trade, sliding 20 sen to RM1.54 with 67.4 million shares done.
Oil prices slipped on Thursday as the market remained well supplied with crude despite efforts by Opec and other big exporters to curb production and support prices, Reuters reported. US crude oil was down 10 cents to US$48.79 and Brent shed eight cents to US$52.13.
Petronas Dagangan fell 32 sen to RM24.08 and wiped out 0.54 of a point, Petronas Gas was down four sen to RM19 and Petronas Chemicals shed three sen to RM7.28.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery fell RM16 to RM2,627 per tonne. IOI Corp lost five sen to RM4.55, KL Kepong and PPB Group were unchanged at RM24.90 and RM17.06. Also unchanged was Sime Darby at RM9.32.
Aeon Credit closed down 56 sen to RM18.82 with 329,300 shares done – a turnaround from the intra-day high of RM19.76. Investors who bought earlier could have been caught by the late selling pressure on the stock, which is fundamentally a strong non-banking financial entity.
Insurer Allianz lost 22 sen to RM12.50. As for the banks, HLFG lost 14 sen to RM17.06, AmBank five sen to RM5.45, RHB Bank four sen lower at RM5.42 while Public Bank and HL Bank shed two sen each to RM20.02 and RM14.06. Also down two sen was Maybank to RM9.32.
However, MAHB rose 16 sen to RM8.33 with 4.5 million shares on news that it was looking to sell a stake in its Istanbul airport operations.
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