Tough going for Bursa as Asian markets wobble

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia had a tough start on Thursday as Public Bank, Maybank and Sime Darby Plantation weighed, taking their cue from the uncertain Asian markets.

At 9.16am, the KLCI was down 2.3 points or 0.14% to 1,584.88. Turnover was 287.30 million shares valued at RM109.17mil. There were 131 gainers, 188 losers and 216 counters unchanged.

Asian share markets wobbled as concerns that tensions over Hong Kong could stymie a US-China trade deal cast a pall over Thanksgiving cheer from unexpectedly positive US economic data, Reuters reported.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was little changed in early trade, while Japan’s Nikkei flitted in and out of positive territory. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 touched a record intraday high in early trade, and was up 0.3%.

At Bursa on Wednesday, foreign funds continued to reduce their stakes in Malaysian equities on Wednesday with net selling at RM88.3mil while local institutions were net buyers at RM58.6mil and local retail investors at RM29.7mil.

BAT fell the most, down 16 sen to RM16.42 while Public Bank lost eight sen to RM19.66 and Maybank was five sen lower at RM8.53. Sime Darby Plantation lost five sen to RM5.05 in thin volume.

Nova, Suria and Econ lost five sen each to 56.5 sen, RM1.36 and 74 sen respectively.

Allianz was the top gainer, up 58 sen to RM14.58. Ajinomoto gained 20 sen to RM15.54, KL Kepong 18 sen to RM23.68 and JCB Next added eight sen to RM1.54.

Source: TheStar