KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips slipped in early Tuesday trade, as the mild rebound deflated despite stronger first quarter corporate earnings as investors worried about the record deaths and infections from the Covid-19.
At 9.44am, the FBM KLCI was down 4.24 points or 0.27% to 1,567.58. Turnover was 1.68 billion shares valued at RM691.20mil. There were 353 gainers, 348 losers and 330 counters unchanged.
However, Asian stocks were steady Tuesday after technology shares spurred a Wall Street rally as Federal Reserve officials tried to soothe concerns about inflation. Bitcoin held onto gains following last week’s crypto rout, Bloomberg reported.
Equities in Japan, South Korea and Australia rose modestly at the open.
Brent crude futures were down 6 cents at $68.40 a barrel by 0039 GMT, having jumped 3% on Monday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures fell 8 cents to $65.97 a barrel, after gaining 3.9% the previous session, according to Reuters.
At Bursa on Monday, local retail investors were net buyers at RM50.3mil but foreign funds turned net sellers at RM43.6m and local funds at RM6.7mil.
Among the consumer stocks, Nestle fell 20 sen to RM135.60 and Ajinomoto lost 16 sen to RM15.44 but Carlsberg added 44 sen to RM21.60, BAT 16 sen to RM15.80 and F&N 14 sen to RM25.96.
Among the glove makers, Hartalega
lost 18 sen to RM9.30 and Supermax 13 sen to RM4.36.
Other decliners were MAHB, down 12 sen to RM5.36, D&O 13 sen to RM4.27 and Petronas Gas 12 sen to RM15.74.
However, MPI topped the gainers list, up 70 sen to RM37.86. Latest data showed North America-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers posted US$3.41bill in billings worldwide in April 2021,4.1% higher than final March 2021 billings of US$3.27bil and jumping by 49.5% from the billings of US$2.28bil a year ago.
Sedania rose 22.5 sen to RM1.13 and Aeon Credit 18 sen to RM12.
