KUALA LUMPUR: Selling of blue chips incuding Telekom and Axis picked up pace in the late afternoon on Tuesday and pushed the FBM KLCI below the physchologically important key 1,750 level on foreign selling.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down 5.38 points or 0.31% to 1,748.99 – the lowest since late April. Turnover was 2.89 billion shares valued at RM2.28bil. There were 382 gainers, 433 losers and 463 counters unchanged.
Stock market data showed foreign funds were net sellers at RM29.1mil while local institutions were net buyers at RM24.9mil and retail investors at just RM4.2mil.
Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia were the markets which were in the red among the Asean countries while Singapore followed the key Asian bourses higher.
Reuters reported Philippines shares hit a record closing high as index heavyweights gained. The Philippine stock index closed 0.59% higher at 8497.74, its highest ever, helped by gains in heavyweights SM Investments and SM Prime Holdings
The ringgit weakened against the US dollar but firmed up against the pound sterling, Singapore dollar and the euro.
It fell 0.14% to the greenback to 4.2235 but rose 0.1% against the pound sterling to 5.6030 and edged up 0.1% also to the Singapore unit to 3.1146 and advanced 0.06% to the euro at 4.9689.
The recent positive economic news did not help spur buying interest in Malaysian equities as foreign funds continued to reduce their shareholdings, ableit on a gradual scale. Even the surge in crude oil prices failed to lift the gloom and Petronas linked stocks fell.
CIMB closed down nine sen to RM6.15 and erased 1.38 points from the KLCI. The banking stock was weighed down by Khazanah's move to dispose of 90.52 million shares. The block of shares were crossed off-market at RM6.13 each at midday.
Maybank fell four sen to RM9.42, RHB Bank five sen to RM5.10, Ambank three sen to RM4.50, while Public Bank and Hong Leong Bank were flat at RM20.46 and RM16. HLFG ended 24 sen down to RM16.72.
US light crude oil rose 27 cents to US$52.14 and Brent gained 34 cents to US$58.16. Petronas Dagangan fell 72 sen to RM24.28, Petronas Gas 18 sen to RM18.50 while Petronas Chemicals was down two sen to RM7.33.
As for telcos, Telekom fell 15 sen to RM6.15 and erased nearly one point from the KLCI, Maxis was down eight sen to RM5.76 and wiped out 1.06 points but Digi's stronger earnings in the third quarter on a sequential basis saw it climbing six sen to RM4.89 while Axiata added tow sen to RM5.18.
Crude palm oil was flat at RM2,762 per tonne. KL Kepong fell 64 sen to RM24.10, Sime Darby shed one sen to RM9.07, PPB Group added two sen to RM16.82 and IOI Corp one sen higher at RM4.54.
As for consumer stocks, BAT fell 48 sen to RM42.72 while Kawan Food dropped 13 sen to RM3.04.
Profit taking saw Padini falling 17 sen to RM4.60.
Palette jumped 7.5 sen to 44 sen and it was the most active with 110 million shares done. Key Asic, which had surged in active trade, rose 5.5 sen to 32.5 sen as it plans to undertake a private placement.
Genting Bhd
gained 18 sen to RM9.65 and pushed the KLCI up 1.17 points, Tenaga added two sen to RM14.28, but Genting Malaysia fell five sen to RM5.32.
Dialog, which rose to a record high of RM2.30 after it was upgraded, ended the day up six sen to RM2.21.
Eita advanced 10 sen to RM1.88 after it bagged a RM69.8mil contract from Mass Rapid Transit Corporation Sdn Bhd (MRTC) for package L&E202, which is for the supply, procurement, installation, testing and commissioning of lift and escalator systems for V203, V204, V205 and V206.
CIMB Equities Research is retaining its Add recommendation for Eita nad target price of RM2.40.
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