Blue chips slip in early trade, Petronas stocks weigh

March 7, 2019 editor Markets

KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips fell in early Thursday trade, weighed down by Petronas linked stocks as investors awaited fresh details from the on-going US-China trade negotiations.

At 9.14am, the KLCI was down 0.91 of a point to 1,685.91. Turnover was 288.87 million shares valued at RM188.40mil. There were 170 gainers, 153 losers and 224 counters unchanged.

Asian shares rose marginally in early trade on Thursday, with caution prevailing as investors awaited some kind of resolution to Sino-US trade negotiations, while the euro remained under pressure ahead of the European Central Bank meeting, Reuters reported.

Japan’s Nikkei average fell 0.6%, while Australian shares added 0.2%.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.1% in early trade. It was not far from its five-month high marked last week and was up 10.4% year-to-date.

At Bursa, Petronas Dagangan fell 44 sen to RM26.24 and Petronas Gas 14 sen to RM17.74 but Petronas Chemical gained seven sen to RM9.37.

BAT lost 42 sen to RM33.94 and F&N 20 sen to RM34.88.

KL Kepong was down 16 sen to RM24.64, HL Bank 12 sen to RM21.16, Tong Herr eight sen to RM3.60 while MISC and MAHB were down six sen each to RM6.74 and RM7.81.

Teck Guan was the top gainer, up 21 sen to RM1.41 while Lafarge added 20 sen to RM2.20.

Hengyuan added 13 sen to RM6.38 and Petron seven sen to RM6.87.

Source : TheStar