Thailand
Bursa Malaysia struggles as investors take profit
KUALA LUMPUR: Genting Malaysia, MISC and Maybank weighed on the FBM KLCI on Monday as investors took profit after last week’s surge while the ringgit slipped against the firmer US dollar.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI was down 1.43 points or 0.08% to 1,751.64, but off the day’s low of 1,747. Turnover was 2.40 billion shares valued at RM2.16bil.
The broader market reflected the weaker sentiment as decliners beat advancers four to three or 451 losers to 350 gainers and 463 counters were unchanged.
The ringgit fell 0.11% against the US dollar to 4.0840 and shed 0.02% to the euro to 4.8156 but it firmed up against the pound sterling by 0.67% to 5.4542 and perked up agains the Singapore dollar by 0.19% to 3.0291.
MIDF Research said the market has been under selling pressure in the last few months because of the general election uncertainties.
Its head of equity strategy Syed Muhammed Kifni Syed Kamaruddin said the KLCI might rebound and hit 1,900 by end of 2018 afer the elections. Underpinning the market would be stronger corporate earnings and a firmer ringgit.
Genting Malaysia – a favourite among the foreign funds – weighed the most on the KLCI, falling 12 sen to RM5.53 and erasing 1.26 points from the KLCI. However, Genting Bhd
climver nne sen to RM9.08 and added 0.61 of a point.
Most banks fell after the recent rally. AmBank fell 13 sen to RM4.33, Public Bank six sen to RM20.70, Maybank and RHB Bank four sen lower at RM9.50 and RM5.08 while CIMB gave up two sen to RM6.29.
However, Hong Leong was the top performer among the KLCI stocks, climbing 28 sen to RM16.94 and pushing up the KLCI by 1.08 points.
Power giant Tenaga fell six sen to RM15.38 on profit taking and on news that there was unlikely to be tariff increase when it is up for revision in January 2018.
Other KLCI stocks which were in the red were MISC, which fell 10 sen to RM7.14 and Hap Seng five sen to RM9.51.
As for consumer stocks, BAT fell RM1.92 to RM36.20, Nestle 30 sen to RM99.70 and Apollo 15 sen lower at RM4.53 but Dutch Lady
rose 14 sen to RM60.90.
Cement makers Tasek lost 36 sen to RM12.04 with 500 shares done and Lafarge 29 sen lower at RM6.16.
As for chip stocks, KESM lost 20 sen to RM19.30 but MPI rose 30 sen to RM12.30
US light crude oil rose 43 cents to US$57.73 and Brent gained 59 cents to US$63.82 amid an ongoing North Sea pipeline outage and because a strike by Nigerian oil workers threatened its crude exports, Reuters reported.
Among the oil and gas stocks, Perdana Petroleum hit limit-down in early trade and stayed that way when it resumed trading. It lost 30 sen to 66 sen.
Refiner Hengyuan was the top gainer, up RM1.06 to RM13.88, Petronas Gas added 20 sen to RM16.44, Petronas Dagangan 12 sen to RM24.42 while Petronas Chemicals was unchanged at RM7.45.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM19 to RM2,532 per tonne. Despite the weaker CPO futures, the plantations seemed unfazed on Monday and chalked up some small gains.
KL Kepong advanced six sen to RM24.52, Sime Plantation rose five sen to RM5,30, PPB Group four sen higher at RM16.94 while IOI Corp was flat at RM4.41.
PUC surged 3.5 sen to 32 sen and it was the most active with 188 million shares done, its warrants WB added 2.5 sen to 23 sen and the WA gained 2.5 sen to 24.5 sen.
Source: https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2017/12/18/bursa-malaysia-struggles-as-investors-take-profit/#B6X3jCQlZ0Ax86KZ.99