Key regional markets fall, KLCI off morning's best

KUALA LUMPUR: Key regional markets fell in the morning session on
Tuesday as investors assessed the impact of the China-Japan tension,
weaker China growth and also the US Federal Reserve's stimulus plan.
At
Bursa Malaysia, the cautious regional markets and also the sharp fall
in the crude palm oil (CPO) third-month futures prices curbed
investors' appetite for riskier assets.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI
was up 2.07 points or 0.13% to 1,645.02 but off the intra-day high of
1,651.66 on the lack of follow-through buying. Turnover was 437.43
million shares valued at RM867.81mil. There were 303 gainers, 309
losers and 273 counters unchanged.
Concerns about the growth
slowdown in China, the world's top consumer of raw materials and the
second-largest economy, also weighed on sentiment as investors took
profits from last week's rallies, according to a Reuters report.
Among
the key regional markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.18% to 9,143.24;
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index shed 0.07% t0 20,644.59; Shanghai's
Composite Index lost 0.64% to 2,065.26; Taiwan's Taiex was 0.36% lower
at 7,734.53 and Singapore's Straits Times Index 0.19% lower at
3,072.77. South Korea's Kospi rose a marinal 0.05% to 2,003.44.
US light crude oil rose 25 cents to US$96.87 and Brent 30 cents higher to US$114.09, spot gold fell US$5.80 to US$1,755.45.
The ringgit weakened to 3.0603 against the US dollar.
At Bursa Malaysia, banking stocks underpinned the market sentiment with Maybank up five sen to RM9.45, CIMB and HLFG gained four sen each to RM7.73 and RM12 and Public Bank edged up two sen to RM14.30. However, HL Bank fell 14 sen to RM13.32.
Petronas Gas added 26 sen to RM19.22, MMHE 12 sen to RM4.87, Axiata and DiGi four sen each to RM6.11 and RM4.94 while Tenaga gained two sen to RM6.81.
Tradewinds Corp rose 14 sen to RM1. Last Friday, it received a RM347mil takeover offer from its largest shareholder Perspective Lane (M) Sdn Bhd.
CPO
for third-month futures fell as much as RM125 to a low of RM2,861 due
to the losses in soybean futures. This was the lowest since Aug 15.
While PPB Group
managed to extend its gains from last week, rising 20 sen to RM12.50,
after the sell-down in recent weeks, KLK lost 22 sen to RM22.14, SOP 17
sen to 59 sen and Kulim 14 sen to RM4.76.
Nestle
was the top loser, down RM1.18 to RM62.26 but with 800 shares done. BAT
lost 66 sen to RM62.72, F&N 38 sen lower to RM19.12 and AirAsia gave up eight sen to RM3.02.