Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (July 20): Malaysian stocks closed slightly lower today, as investors turned to profit-taking after early gains fuelled by global shares extended run of record highs.

The benchmark FBM KLCI closed down 0.09% or 1.64 points to 1,755.63 today, dragged down by Ajinomoto (Malaysia) Bhd, Dutch Lady Milk Industries Bhd and Panasonic Manufacturing Malaysia Bhd.

Turnover was 1.72 billion shares valued at RM2.01 billion. There were 373 gainers, 465 losers and 381 counters that traded unchanged.

British American Tobacco (Malaysia) Bhd, Allianz Malaysia Bhd and Genting Bhd were the top gainers.

The most actively traded stocks were Frontken Corp Bhd, MLabs Systems Bhd, and ManagePay Systems Bhd.

According to Etiqa Takaful and Insurance head of research Chris Eng, investors take profits in blue chip stocks after the market's recent ascent.

He said investors also reacted to yesterday's news about state-owned investment firm Khazanah Nasional Bhd looking to sell a block of shares in CIMB Group Holdings Bhd for RM571 million to RM581 million.

The banking counter saw a placement of up to 90.52 million shares by Khazanah, which owns 29.1% of CIMB, for RM571.18 million, or RM6.31 per share, in off-market trades today.

Noting that the banking counter had risen ahead of the placement yesterday, Eng said the stock is unlikely to rebound to its recent two-year high any time soon.

CIMB shares closed down 11 sen or 1.71% at RM6.31 today, with 21.32 million shares done, bringing it a market capitalisation of RM57.21 billion.

Across Asia, shares rose to new heights in tandem with a stronger global market, according to Reuters.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.1%, hovering near its highest level since December 2007, the newswire reported.

The Shanghai Composite advanced 0.4% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng crept up 0.3%. In Japan, a weaker yen helped to lift the Nikkei by 0.6%, as South Korea's Kospi rose for the sixth straight session to hit an all-time high of 2,441.84 points.

 

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