12/05/2012 (The Star) - Commodities including oil and gold fell on worries about the eurozone debt crisis at midday on Friday while all key regional equities markets were in the red, posting losses of up 1.4%.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 1.14 points or just 0.07% to 1,586.92. Turnover was 475.81 million shares valued at RM374.94mil. Losers beat gainers 362 to 176 while 330 stocks were unchanged.

Among the key regional markets, South Korea's Kospi slid 1.42% to 1,917.32, Taiwan's Taiex 1.26% to 7,389.34, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index 1.18% to 19,989.54, Singapore's Straits Times Index 0.66% to 2,884.48, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.63% to 8,953.33 and Shanghai's Composite Index 0.25% 2,404.31.

Crude palm oil (CPO) futures for July delivery fell RM46 to RM3,303 a tonne, the lowest level since March 8. Bloomberg reported that the two-month low was due to a decline in exports from Malaysia and on concern that Europe's debt crisis may worsen.

US light crude oil fell US$1.17 to US$95.92, Brent 90 cents to US$111.83 and gold spot US$8.16 to 1,585.85. The ringgit weakened to 3.072 to the US dollar.

Market sentiment was also impacted after JPMorgan Chase & Co, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, suffered a trading loss of at least US$2 billion from a failed hedging strategy, a shock disclosure that hit financial stocks and the reputation of the bank.

At Bursa Malaysia, CIMB's 5.0 sen decline to RM7.60 shaved off 0.878 of a point of the KLCI. PPB, fell 34 sen to RM16.14, erasing 0.635 of a point of the index.

BAT fell 30 sen to RM16.14, United Plantations 24 sen to RM26.26, HL Bank eight sen to RM12.10, RHB Cap five sen to RM7.36 and MMHE three sen to RM4.88.

Among the active stocks, Harvest fell 4.5 sen to 58 sen with 37.29 million shares done. Permaju rose four sen to 99 sen.

The gainers were Aeon Credit, up 20 sen to RM11.30, Aeon 18 sen to RM9.80 and Public Bank foreign six sen to RM13.72. DiGi, IOI, Public Bank, PetChem added two sen each to RM4.07, RM5.24, RM13.74 and RM6.59 respectively.