KUALA LUMPUR: Trading volume on Bursa Malaysia continued to be heavy in the morning session of Monday, rising to 1.82 billion shares but the quality of the buying was rather lacklustre as the broader market again showed weakeness.

Underpinning the FBM KLCI which enabled it to reclaim the 1,700 level were Maybank and Axiata  Group but weighing on the index was IHH Healthcare.

At 12.30pm, the KLCI was up 3.68 points or 0.22% to 1,702.03. Turnover rose to 1.80 billion shares valued at RM806.43mil. The broader market continued to languish, with decliners beating advancers 505 to 297 and 314 counters unchanged.

The ringgit weakened against the US dollar but firmed up against some key currencies. It fell 0.07% to 4.4438 to the greenback from 4.4405. It climbed 0.87% to the pound sterling to 5.5233 from 5.5720 and edged up against the Singapore dollar to 3.1624 from 3.1630. It advanced against the Euro to 4.6954 from 4.7021.

Maybank rose six sen to RM8.66 and added over one point to the KLCI but CIMB and Hong Leong Bank were flat at RM5.08 and RM13.60 while Public Bank shed two sen to RM20 and RHB Bank seven sen lower at RM4.86.

As for telcos, Axiata rose seven sen to RM4.36 and pushed the KLCI up 1.03 points, Maxis added three sen to RM6.32, Digi and Telekom were flat at RM5.02 and RM6.12. Genting Bhd rose eight sen to RM9.19 and Genting Malaysia two sen to RM5.30 and Tenaga added four sen to RM13.54.

Crude palm oil for third-month delivery fell RM20 to RM2,786 per tonne. However, KL Kepong rose 30 sen to RM24.38 and PPB Group added 18 sen to RM16.48, IOI Corp two sen to RM4.71 but SimeDarby shed one sen to RM9.19.

US light crude oil rose 18 cents to US$54.17 and Brent added 25 cents to US$56.24. Petronas Dagangan added 18 sen to RM24.50, Petronas Chemicas four sen higher at RM7.45 but Petronas Gas fell 10 sen to RM20.44.

Among the consumer stocks, Dutch Lady and Kawan Foods lost 34 sen each to RM54.34 and RM4.0 and BAT shed two sen to RM49.28.

Among the financial stocks, insurer Allianz rose 18 sen to RM11.40 as investors shrugged off concerns about the Malaysia Competition Commission's (MyCC) proposal to impose a financial penalty of a  RM213.45mil on all 23 general insurers in the country.

Its subsidiary, Allianz General Insurance Company (Malaysia) Bhd (AGIC), was among the insurers – who are members of Persatuan Insurans Am Malaysia (PIAM) – alleged to have infringed one of the prohibitions under Part II of the Competition Act 2010 (CA)

Allianz said its general insurer AGIC, as one of the members of PIAM, will have a share of RM27.48mil of the proposed penalty. 

MAHB rose 15 sen to RM6.50 but Wesports fell 12 sen to RM3.82. SAM Engineering and Scientex lost 10 sen each to RM5.70 and RM7.30.

Burn-in tester and semicon related KESM rose 16 sen to RM9.79. 

Among the key regional markets,

Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.58% to 19,171.76;

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.08% to 23,984.70;

CSI 300 lost 0.27% to 3,244.71;

Shanghai’s Composite Index fell 0.27% to 3,244.71;

Hang Seng China Enterprise lost 0.22% to 10,395.93;

Taiwan’s Taiex lost 0.19% to 9,750.47;

South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.24% to 2,089.16 and

Singapore’s Straits Times Index was down 0.42% to 3,103.96.

Spot gold fell 71 cents to US$1,256.48.

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