KL shares extend losses at opening

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia extended its losses on Tuesday on continued selling in selected heavyweights, especially finance-related stocks, dealers said.

At 9.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 4.18 points lower at 1,665.32, against Monday's close of 1,669.50, after opening 4.19 points weaker at 1,665.31 this morning.

Losers outpaced gainers 124 to 76 while 165 counters were unchanged, 1,335 untraded and 36 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 79.63 million shares worth RM31.35 million.

A dealer said the downtrend in the local bourse was in tandem with stock markets worldwide, ahead of the first US presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

"Investors mainly remained on the sidelines, cautiously waiting for the outcome of the debate.

"Meanwhile, investors were hoping to see some positive news on global oil prices in advance of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting," the dealer said.

Back home, the banking industry was seen cutting its loan growth forecast for this year as a result of a slower economy, he added.

"Consumer banks are cutting their loan growth forecast from 8-10 percent to 4-5 percent this year," he said.

Of the heavyweights, TNB and Petronas Chemicals were flat at RM14.40 and RM6.70 respectively while Public Bank fell two sen to RM19.96 and Maybank declined five sen to RM7.64.

Among actives, Connectcounty and Perisai Petroleum rose half-a-sen each to three sen and 15.5 sen respectively, Vivocom shed half-a-sen to 20.5 sen while AirAsia X was flat at 38.5 sen.

For the top gainers, Teck Guan rose 31 sen to RM1.37, Petronas Dagangan jumped 30 sen to RM23.70, UEM Edgenta increased 14 sen to RM3.39 and KL Kepong was eight sen better at RM24.18.

The FBM Emas Index lost 24.58 points to 11,766.73, the FBMT 100 Index decreased 25.74 points to 11,466.98 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index was 8.59 points lower at 12,420.24.

The FBM 70 depreciated 19.99 points to 13,789.15, the Plantation Index dropped 11.78 points to 7,954.35 but the FBM Ace was 35.34 points lower at 5,237.07.

The Finance Index declined 59.09 points to 14,299.30 but the Industrial Index was 0.03 point weaker at 3,127.37.
Gold futures contracts on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives were marginally higher in early trade today with one contract month traded.

At 10am, October 2016 rose five ticks to RM177.95 a gramme.

Spot month September 2016 stood at RM177.70 a gramme while November 2016 and December 2016 each stood at RM178.20 a gramme.

Volume was three lots with open interest amounting to 270 contracts.

At 9.30am, physical gold was 53 sen better at RM172.34 a gramme from RM171.81 a gramme on Monday. — Bernama