KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips closed lower on late selling again on Tuesday, with profit taking of Genting Bhd
and CIMB and pushed the FBM KLCI into the lowest since mid-April as foreign funds stepped up selling pressure.
While the KLCI got off on a promising start, it slipped into the red by late morning trade and lost more ground towards the close as foreign selling picked up pace again.
At 5pm, the KLCI was down 5.33 points or 0.31% to 1,736.14. Turnover was 2.49 billion shares valued at RM2.12bil. Decliners beat advancers 578 to 255 while 451 counters were unchanged.
Stock market data showed foreign funds were net sellers at RM120.7mil while local institutions were net buyers at RM94.2mil and retail investors at RM26.5mil.
While the ringgit firmed up against the US dollar, it lost ground against the pound sterling, Singapore dollar and the euro.
The ringgit rose 0.12% to the greenback to 4.2320 but fell 0.13% to the pound to 5.5880 and shed 0.03% to the Singapore unit at 3,1094 and slipped 0.1% to the euro at 4.9787.
Genting Malaysia fell 12 sen to RM5 and erased 1.21 points from the KLCI, MISC was down six sen to RM7.08, Genting Bhd shed one sen to RM9.34 while Tenaga was flat at RM14.30.
As for banks, CIMB fell seven sen to RM6.11, RHB Bank three sen lower at RM4.95, Hong Leong Bank and Public Bank two sen lower at RM16.08 and RM20.44 but AmBank added two sen to RM4.40 and Maybank edged up one sen to RM9.25.
Top Glove's recent rally hit a speed bump after it said it was still looking at buying a glove maker. It refuted reports that it was looking at Supermax and Adventa.
Top Glove fell 29 sen to RM6.39, Supermax lost 15 sen to RM1.89 and Adventa eight sen lower at 75.5 sen. Comfort fell seven sen to RM1.03.
US light crude oil fell 24 cents to US$51.66 and Brent lost 17 cents to US$57.20. Petronas Gas lot 10 sen to RM18.10, Petronas Chemical two sen to RM7.48 but Petronas Dagangan added 22 sen to RM24.20. Petron lost 18 sen to RM11.44.
BAT was the top loser, down 60 sen to RM42 after its weaker third quarter earnings.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM9 to RM2,778 per tonne. IOI Corp rose seven sen to RM4.50, Sime was flat at RM9.11, PPB Group shed four sen to RM16.68, KL Kepong lost 10 sen to RM24.30.
Denko Industrial rose 28 sen to RM1.56 as investors were upbeat on the
Plastic injection moulding company, Denko Industrial Corporation jumped to muti-year high of RM1.66 early Tuesday as its major shareholder unveiled a RM1.19bil corporate exercise. It eended 28 sen higher ay RM1.56.
Tech related stocks fared better as KESM added 16 sen to RM16.60 and Glbetronics 14 sen to RM6.34 while SAM Engineering outperformed the rest with a gain of 26 sen to RM7.50.
As for telcos, Digi fell five sen to RM4.82, Telekom was flat at RM6.13, Maxis and Axiata edged up one sen each to RM5.76 and RM5.23.
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