KUALA LUMPUR: TM International, Genting and Resorts were lower in early trade on Feb 26 as sentiment remained cautious ahead of more corporate earnings.

At 10am, the KL Composite Index was down 0.07 point to 896.44. Turnover was 73.18 million shares valued at RM78.1 million. There were 96 gainers, 89 lowers and 116 stocks unchanged.

Asian markets were marginally higher with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index opening up 0.5% to 13,068.76 while Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.37% to 7,563.51. Shanghai’s Composite Index rose 0.43% to 2,216.15.

Light crude oil rose seven cents to US$42.57.

HwangDBS Vickers Research said the local stock market would probably see mixed fortunes ahead. On one hand, the KLCI was expected to show steadiness on buying support of a handful of index-linked counters, extending its recent resilient trend.

“But behind the headline performance, the overall scoreboard will likely show more losers than gainers after two days of negative market breadth as the underlying sentiment remains weak.

“The poor investment appetite is also the case abroad, which is expected to translate to continued selling activity across the region today following the overnight drop on Wall Street (whose key equity indices slid 1.1% each at the closing bell),” it said.

LKT was the top loser, skidding 36 sen to RM1.80 with 100 shares done. Complete Logistics plunged 29 sen to 17 sen while BIG Industries gave up 20 sen to 30 sen and Toyo Ink 10 sen lower to RM1.48.

TMI, which will unveil its recapitalization plan this evening that could include a rights issue, fell eight sen to RM3.06.

Genting fell six sen to RM3.54 ahead of its earnings announcement. Its subsidiary Resorts World fell two sen to RM2.22 after the posted net loss of RM387.84 million in the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, compared to a net profit of RM344 million a year ago due to the impairment of its investment in Star Cruises Ltd (SCL) of RM781.5 million. 

Pos Malaysia fell four sen to RM2.10. It made net loss of RM113.20 million in the fourth quarter versus a loss of RM137.52 million a year earlier, due to operations loss and impairments totalling RM107.19 million, mainly for diminution in value of Transmile Group

Compugates, which was the most active counter with 10.3 million shares, fell 0.5 sen to 16.5 sen. IOI Corp rose four sen to RM3.76 and it was among the most active stocks.

Tenaga rose 15 sen to RM6.45 while KLK gained 10 sen to RM10. Selangor water-related counters were higher with Puncak adding seven sen to RM2.87, KPS five sen to RM1.46 and JAKS one sen up to 45 sen.

MAS, which will release its earnings this evening, rose five sen to RM2.75.