KLCI falls on late selling of Petronas stocks

KUALA LUMPUR: Late selling of Petronas-linked counters dragged the
FBM KLCI into the red, sinking more than five points, while key
regional markets closed lower after Spain's credit rating was cut.
Also
weighing on sentiment was data from the U.S and Europe, which added to
concern the global economy is slowing, analysts said. They expected
market sentiment to continue to be cautious due to the euro zone crisis.
News
reports said Spanish bond yields rose sharply following Moody's
Investors Service decision to downgrade by three notches to Baa3 from
A3 to a level just above junk status. The yield on Spain's 10-year
government bond hovered around 6.9%.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI was
down 5.29 points or 0.34% to 1,570.94, with selling seen in the last 10
minutes. Turnover was 670.94 million shares valued at RM1.127bil. There
were 267 gainers, 381 losers and 325 stocks unchanged.
Among the
key regional markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.22% to 8,568.89; Hong
Kong's Hang Seng Index 1.15% lower at 18,808.40; Shanghai's Composite
Index 0.99% to 2,295.95; Taiwan's Taiex 0.19% to 7,075.10 and
Singapore's Straits Times Index slipped 0.48% to 2,773.64. However,
South Korea's Kospi bucked the trend to added 0.65% to 1,871.48.
US
light crude oil fell seven cents to US$82.55 and Brent 22 cents to
US$96.91. The ringgit weakened to 3.1812 against the US dollar.
At Bursa Malaysia, DiGi fell five sen to RM4.05, erasing 0.92 of a point of the KLCI. Petronas Gas fell 32 sen to RM17.68, pushing the KLCI down 0.8 of a point while Petronas Dagangan lost 30 sen to RM21.20, wiping 0.28 of a point.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery fell RM104 to RM2,844, the lowest since Oct 18.
Plantations were mixed. Batu Kawan was the top loser, down 38 sen to RM18.52, IOI two sen to RM5.10 while Sime and KLK were unchanged at RM9.73 and RM22.86. However, United Plantations rose 26 sen to RM25.10, TDM 19 sen to RM4.01 and Genting Plantations 14 sen higher to RM9.30.
Aeon Credit fell 18 sen to RM10.50 and Aeon 15 sen to RM9.21 while MISC shed 12 sen to RM3.91.
Naim Indah Corp was unchanged at 30.5 sen with 48.86 million shares done.
Public Bank rose four sen to RM13.70 and RHB Cap six sen to RM7.39. Shell added 26 sen to RM9.34, Carlsberg 24 sen to RM11.30 and Nestle 20 sen to RM55.20.