The Star Online (19/10/2017) - KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips plumbed to the lowest since April on Thursday on Maybank, Digi and Petronas Gas losses as foreign funds continued to reduce their shareholdings. 

At 5pm, the KLCI was down five points or 0.29% to 1,743.99. Turnover was 3.16 billion shares valued at RM2.51bil. Decliners beat advancers 502 to 342 while 457 counters were unchanged.

A technical chartist said KLCI had tested the 200-day simple moving average (SMA) of 1,742. If it breached this level, it would fall to 1,740 and then 1,730, he said.

Comments by Fidelity International managed to provide some respite however. It favours Singaporean and Malaysian stocks in the short term.

“Outlook for Malaysia’s corporate earnings is good in next six to 12 months because of upcoming elections and increased investments,”  Gillian Kwek, equities portfolio manager for Southeast Asian equities was quoted saying by Bloomberg.

The ringgit climbed against the US dollar, pound sterling and Singapore dollar but slipped against the euro.

It edged up 0.01% to 4.2240 against the US dollar while it advanced 0.4% versus the pound sterling to 5.5566 and gained 0.04% to the Singapore dollar at 3.1111. It  fell 0.5% against the euro to 4,9862.

Maybank fell seven sen to RM9.35 and erased 1.21 points from the KLCI. RHB Bank fell 11 sen to RM4.99 and AmBank shed two sen to RM4.48.

However, Public Bank and Hong Leong Bank added two sen each to RM20.48 and RM16.02and CIMB added three sen to RM6.18.

As for telcos, Digi skidded 12 sen to RM4.77 and wiped out 1.52 points from the KLCI, Telekom lost six sen to RM6.09, Maxis shed two sen to RM5.74 and Aixata was flat at RM5.18.

US light crude oil fell 73 cents to US$51.31 and Brent lost 75 cents to US$57.40.

Petronas Gas fell 52 sen to RM17.98 and erased 1.69 points from the KLCI, Petronas Dagangan lost eight sen to RM24.20 but Petronas Chemicals gained 21 sen to RM7.54 and powered the KLCI up 2.75 points. Yinson rose 15 sen to RM3.80.

Crude palm oil for third-month delivery fell RM10 to RM2,731 per tonne. KL Kepong added 28 sen to RM24.38. Genting Plantations lost 24 sen to RM10.36, IOI Corp fell five sen to RM4.49, Sime Darby three sen lower at RM9.04 and PPB Group 10 sen down to RM16.72. 

Hubline fell 0.5 sen to 16.5 sen after it was queried by Bursa Securities over the sharp rise in the share price and volume recently. Over the past month, its share price had surged from only 6.5 sen.

As for the glove makers, Supermax added 19 sen to RM2.02 and Top Glove seven sen higher at RM6.40.

Among the key regional markets,

Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.4% to 21,448.52;

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slid 1.92% to 28,159.09;

CSI 300 fell 0.33% to 3,931.25;

Shanghai’s Composite Index fell 0.34% to 3,370.17; 

Hang Seng China Enterprise tumbled 2.28% to 11,357.45;

Taiwan’s Taiex rose 0.37% to 10,760.29;

South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.4% to 2,473.06 and

Singapore’s Straits Times Index gained 0.18% to 3,334.91.

Spot gold rose US$2.61 to US$1,283.69 per troy ounce.