Taiwan's tumble worries markets including Bursa
Published on 30 Jan 2020. | Source: thestar.com.my
KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips continued to lose ground at midday on Thursday, dragged down by losses in Petronas Chemicals, while the tumble in Taiwan's benchmark index over the spread of the coronavirus worried investors.
At 12.30 pm, the KLCI was down 2.15 points or 0.14% to 1,548.32. There were 255 gainers, 496 losers and 340 counters unchanged. Turnover was 1.49 billion shares valued at RM988.51mil.
Reuters reported Asian stocks and currencies fell on Thursday as the death toll from a new virus spreading in China rose and more cases were reported around the world.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1.7% to an almost seven-week low. It has dropped for six straight sessions. Taiwan's Taiex plunged 5.48%, Japan's Nikkei 225 1.72% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index skidded 1.72% while Singapore's STI lost 0.56%.
When compared with these markets, the selling on KLCI was seen as well absorbed.
The ringgit weakened 0.21% against the US dollar at midday to 4.0887.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery fell RM76 to RM2,647 per tonne. United Plantations and Riverview fell 16 sen each to RM26.10 amd R2.65 while KL Kepong lost 14 sen to RM22.98, IOI Corp dipped one sen to RM4.51 while Sime Plantation and PPB Group were unchanged at RM4.99 and RM18.68.
US light crude oil fell 52 cents to US$52.81 and Brent 58 cents to US$59.23. Petronas Chemicals fell 11 sen to RM6.47 and erased 1.36 points from the KLCI, Petronas Gas 10 sen to RM16.20 but Petronas Dagangan rose six sen to RM22.34. Dialog shed one sen to RM3.26.
Nestle was the top loser, down 30 sen to RM144.70, Heineken 16 sen to RM27.34 but BAT rose 30 sen to RM11.92 and Dutch Lady 20 sen to RM41.20.
Icon-OR collapsed 8.5 sen to 0.5 sen with 120.38 million units done.
Banks were mixed with Maybank up four sen to RM8.49, Hong Leong Bank flat at RM15.80 while CIMB shed one sen to RM4.98 and Public Bank six sen lower at RM18.94.
Tenaga lost four sen to RM12.52, IHH rose one sen to RM5.81 while MAHB added 20 sen at RM6.88.
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