KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended the first trading day of October on a downbeat note on foreign fund selling of Telekom Malaysia, Genting Malaysia and IHH Healthcare while the broader market weakened.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI was down 0.8 of a point or 0.05% to 1,754.78. Turnover was 2.23 billion shares valued at RM1.74bil. The broader market saw decliners beating advancers nearly two to one or 501 losers to 276 gainers and 421 counters unchanged.
Stock market data showed foreigns funds were net sellers at RM79.2mil and local retail investors at RM16.5mil but local institutions were net buyers at RM95.7mil.
The ringit fell 0.33% to the US dollar to 4.2343 and shed 0.04% to the Singapore dollar at 3.1098. It gained against the pound sterling, up 0.15% to 5.6387 and climbed 0.19% to the euro to 4.9724.
At Bursa, sentiment had been cautious in recent weeks and foreign selling had picked up pace last week ahead of an expected US interest rate hike.
However, Japan’s Nikkei share average rose on Monday, buoyed by Wall Street’s increases and upbeat domestic data, although caution towards an upcoming general election limited gains, Reuters reported.
Hong Kong, China and South Korean markets were closed but Taiwan's TAIEX added 0.78% to 10,465.16 and Singapore's Straits Times Index jumped 1.31% to 2,262.10.
At Bursa, Telekom fell 20 sen to RM6.30 and erased 1.28 points from the KLCI but Digi, Maxis and Axiata rose one sen each to RM4.91, RM5.81 and RM5.25 respectively.
Genting Malaysia lost eight sen to RM5.30, Genting Bhd
seven sen to RM9.49, IHH five sen to RM5.70 and MISC two sen to RM7.28.
Among the consumer stocks, Dutch Lady fell 96 sen to RM59.40 and BAT 82 sen lower at RM42.92.
Lotte Chemical Titan fell 28 sen to RM4.98 with 7.68 million shares done after the Department of Environment issued a stop-work order on its catalytic cracking reactor to eliminate oil sheen discharge. It said that the commissioning was still on target by the fourth quarter.
Oil dipped further below US$57 a barrel on Monday as an increase in US drilling and higher Opec output put the brakes on a rally in which the market scored its biggest third-quarter gain in 13 years, Reuters said.
Petronas Dagangan fell 10 sen to RM24.22, Petronas Gas was flat at RM17.90 but Petronas Chemicals edged up one sen to RM7.30.
However, refiner Hengyuan added 15 sen to RM8.07 and Petron 14 sen to RM10.44.
As for banks, Public Bank rose 14 sen to to RM20.58, CIMB and AmBank four sen higher at RM6.34 and RM4.40 while Maybank added two sen to RM9.55 while RHB Bank added one sen to RM5.04 and Hong Leong Bank unchanged at RM15.86.
Crude palm oil for third month deivery fell RM36 to RM2,659 per tonne. Sime Darby lsot two sen to RM9, IOI Corp one sen to RM4.53, PPB Group added four sen to RM16.90 and KL Kepong six sen higher to RM24.62.
1,754.780-0.80 (-0.05%)
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