KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips ended Wednesday in the red despite a rebound in RHB Bank shares and gains by Petronas Gas as the market turned bearish in late trade depsite the firmer ringgit against various key currencies.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down 1.28 points or 0.07% to 1,772.94. Turnover rose to two billion shares valued at RM1.97bil. There were 384 gainers, 419 losers and 431 counters unchanged.
The ringgit rose 0.15% to the US dollar at 4.2808 and climbed 0.32% against the pound sterling to 5.5008 and eked out a gain of 0.03% to the Singapore dollar at 3.1427. However, the local unit fell 0.12% against the euro at 5.0380.
China’s main stock indexes ended little changed on Wednesday, with profit taking in steel firms offsetting a rise in banks ahead of earnings reports that could set the tone for financials for the rest of the year, Reuters reported.
US light crude oil fell 22 cents to US$47.61 and Berent was down 30 sen to US$51.57.
Refiners Hengyuan lost 29 sen to RM8.21 and Petron fell 17 sen to RM9.24.
Petronas Gas rose 20 sen to RM19 and pushed the KLCI up 0.67 of a point, Petronas Dagangan added 10 sen to RM24.10 and Petronas Chemicals added eight sen to RM7.16.
RHB Bank rose 19 sen to RM5.07 and pushed the KLCI up 1.29 points but its failed merger partner AmBank fell 11 sen to RM4.59 and wiped out 0.56 of a point.
CIMB lost one sen to RM6.74, Public Bank two sen to RM20.56, Maybank three sen to RM9.58 and Hong Leong Bank 10 sen lower at RM15.46.
Insurer Allianz fell 18 sen to RM14.50 while HLFG was down 14 sen to RM16.86.
Dutaland
surged 12 sen to 62.5 sen with 63.1 million shares as investors viewed its plan to sell its Sabah plantations to Boustead Plantations for RM750mil as positive. Its related company, Olympia rose 1.5 sen to 14 sen.
Among the consumer stocks, Nestle lost 22 sen to RM84.28, F&N 16 sen to RM24.44 and BAT 14 sen lower at RM44.04.
As for engineering, tech-related and Internet stocks, SAM Engineering loan stocks fell the most, down 43 sen to RM3.47. Pentamaster rose 17 sen to RM4.89, Microlink surged 17 sen to RM1.09, while Virox gained 17 sen to RM4.64.
Dagang Nexchange fell two sen to 50.5 sen and its warrants WD two sen lower 24.5 sen.
As for telcos, Telekom and Maxis were flat at RM6.40 and RM5.78 while Digi and Axiata added two sen each to RM488 and RM4.87.
Genting Malaysia fell 12 sen to RM6 and erased 1.21 points from the KLCI, but Genting Bhd added five sen to RM9.78, Tenaga gained two sen to RM14.26.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery, rose RM38 to RM2,749 per tonne, giving up part of the recent gains.
KL Kepong rose 10 sen to RM24.40, PPB Grouyp six sen higher at RM16.68, IOI Corp was flat at RM4.50 while Sime Darby shed one sen to RM9.30.
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