Top Glove, Tenaga top losers as KLCI slumps nearly 12 points

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia continued to lose ground early Monday with Top Glove and Tenaga Nasional among the top losers as market sentiment stayed cautious for the fifth straight on the confluence of weak corporate results, negative news and the tumble on Wall Street last Friday.

At 9.10am, the KLCI was down 11.53 points or 0.69% to 1,669.01. Turnover was 249.53 million shares valued at RM57.93mil. There were 68 gainers, 204 losers and 136 counters unchanged.

The world’s largest glove maker, Top Glove fell 29 sen to RM5.61.

Reuters reported Britain is launching an investigation into medical gloves used by its health service after a Thomson Reuters Foundation expose found stocks from Malaysia could be tainted by the mistreatment of migrant workers at the world’s biggest glovemaker.

The health ministry said it would investigate standards at Top Glove Corp. Bhd – which makes rubber gloves sold to Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) – after the expose found some migrants working illegal overtime to pay off debts.

Tenaga continued to fall, down 24 sen to RM13.46 and MAHB lost 21 sen to RM7.60.

Consumer stocks topped the losers list, with BAT down 68 sen to RM36.60, Nestle 50 sen yo RM144 and Ajinomoto 14 sen to RM18.50.

KESM fell 24 sen to RM8.36 with 500 shares done and Westports 12 sen to RM3.61.

Plantations also lost ground with KL Kepong down 32 sen to RM23.82 and PPB Group 18 sen to RM16.82.

Petronas Dagangan added 10 sen to RM15.24, Hai-O seven sen to RM3.05 and Tong Herr six sen to RM3.80.

Reuters reported global stocks extended their slump, with US equity futures and Asian shares sliding on worries over slowing growth and fears that a fresh flare-up in tensions between Washington and Beijing could quash any chances of a trade deal.

S&P futures were down 0.7% and the Dow futures lost 0.8% early in the Asian day.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 0.7%, stooping to a two-week low.

Australian stocks fell 1.7%, brushing its lowest level since December 2016, and South Korea’s KOSPI were down 1.4%.

Japan’s Nikkei fell 2%. Data early in the session showed the economy contracted the most in over four years in the third quarter as capital expenditure tumbled.

International oil prices rose, extending gains from Friday when producer club Opec and some non-affiliated producers agreed a supply cut of 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) from January, Reuters reported.

Brent crude oil futures rose 14 cents to US$61.81 per barrel.

Source: TheStar