KUALA LUMPUR (May 10): The FBM KLCI pared some of its loss at mid-morning today but sentiment at the local market stayed weak in line with the regional bourses.
At 10am, the FBM KLCI was down 3.72 points to 1,628.47. The index had earlier dipped to a low of 1,614.40.
The top losers included Petronas Dagangan Bhd, British American Tobacco (M) Bhd, Petronas Gas Bhd, LPI Capital Bhd, PPB Group Bhd, Tenaga Nasional Bhd, Lafarge Malaysia Bhd, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd and Genting Bhd.
The actives included Hiap Huat Holdings Corporation Bhd, Vivocom International Holdings Bhd, AirAsia X Bhd, AirAsia Bhd, Inix Technologies Bhd and Palette Multimedia Bhd.
The gainers included Tasek Corporation Bhd, MISC Bhd, Pestech International Bhd, Dutch Lady Milk Industries Bhd, Nestle (M) Bhd, SAM Engineering & Equipment Bhd, Shell Refining Company (Federation of Malaya) Bhd, Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd and Public Bank Bhd.
Asian shares got off to a weak start on Tuesday, pressured by weaker crude oil prices, though Japanese shares got a tailwind as the dollar stood tall against the yen, according to Reuters.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.3 percent in early trading. Wall Street put in a mixed performance overnight, undercut by tumbling oil prices amid expectations that U.S. crude inventories would again build to record highs, it said.
Hong Leong IB Research said the landslide victory in 11th Sarawak state election (for Barisan Nasional) did not seem to cheer the local benchmark index yesterday as subdued global markets and jittery feeling on Petronas-related stocks after the lackluster MISC results more than offset the positive tone from the state election win.
“In addition, overall sentiment is also likely to be dampened by the overnight decline in crude oil prices as well as depreciation in ringgit against US Dollar.
“Hence, we are of the opinion that the benchmark index is expected to remain under pressure as downtrend is still intact until very convincing reversal signals emerge,” it said.