KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia joined key Asian markets to close in the red on Friday – the last trading day of the first half – on lack of fund support due to uncertainty ahead of a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The FBM KLCI came under selling pressure again in late trade and ended the day down 0.57 point ot 0.03% to 1,672.13. Year-to-date, the index is down 1.09%, still the worst performer among the key Asian markets.

Friday's turnover was 2.22 billion shares valued at RM1.84bil. There were 334 gainers, 413 losers and 450 counters unchanged.

The ringgit rose 0.2% against the US dollar to 4.1353.

AllianceDBS Research said the anticipated economic recovery for Malaysia in the second half of this year was less certain due to concerns of a prolonged US-China trade tensions despite the pre-emptive interest rate cut of 25bps by Bank Negara in May 2019. 

“The persistently weak consumer and business sentiments may continue to undermine economic growth which is now projected at 4.5% for 2019. 

“We maintain our KLCI target of 1,695, based on 16 times CY20 earnings. The KLCI’s earnings outlook remains uninspiring amid heightened uncertainties in the global and domestic markets, trade tensions and prolonged weakness in commodity-related sectors. Relatively slow M1 money supply growth suggests there is limited upside for the Malaysian equity market where earnings growth remains elusive,” it said in its strategy report. 

Among the telcos, Maxis fell 23 sen to RM5.57 and erased 3.13 points from the KLCI. This was the biggest decline since April 18. Telekom lost seven sen to RM4, Axiata shed two sen to RM4.98 and Digi unchanged at RM5.05.

Public Bank lost 16 sen to RM23 – off the high of RM23.86 on May 31. Maybank and AmBank shed one sen each to RM8.88 and RM4.23, RHB Bank was unchanged at RM5.59 but Hong Leong Bank gained four sen to RM19 and CIMB three sen higher at RM5.38.

Sime Darby ended four sen lower at RM2.26, Genting three sen to RM6.77 but MAHB gained three sen to RM19 and GentingM increased by four sen to RM3.24.

Tenaga Nasional rose 16 sen to RM13.84 and gave the KLCI a 1.58 point boost.

US light crude oil fell 23 cents to US$59.20 and Brent 32 cents lower at RM66.23.  Petronas Gas rose 26 sen to RM17.36, Petronas Chemical and Petronas Dagangan gained two sen each to RM8.40 and RM25.40 while Dialog was unchanged at RM3.26.

KNM jumped 6.5 sen to 25.5 sen with 332 million shares done while its warrants advanced 2.5 sen to six sen.

Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM13 to RM1,950 – the lowest since August 2015. Bloomberg reported the slump in the price was due to persistently high stockpiles in top growers amid lacklustre demand.  IOI Corp lost four sen to RM4.25.However, KL Kepong added two sen to RM24.56, Sime Plantation six sen to RM4.92 and PPB Group 14 sen to RM18.70.

Consumer stocks were mostly lower with BAT sliding 30 sen to RM28.80 and Heineken 24 sen to RM23.46.