Malaysian shares ended in the red on Monday, erasing gains from the previous session, and bucking a positive regional performance.
The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI, the main gauge of Malaysian stocks, shed 11.19 points to end 0.7% lower at 1,700.84.
In local news, Malaysia will lower the subsidized diesel price for citizens to 2.10 ringgit per liter from 2.15 ringgit per liter, starting July, the country's finance ministry said Sunday. The move aims to reduce smuggling and subsidy leakage arising from the wide gap between subsidized and market prices, particularly amid global supply pressures linked to the West Asia conflict, the ministry said.
Malaysian banks will endure a downside case of a larger decline in nonperforming loans (NPLs) amid a possible rise in dividend payouts, S&P Global Ratings said. In S&P's severe stress test involving the country's top nine banks, a rise in NPL ratios to 5% could lead to an earnings decline and a deterioration in capital buffers.
In corporate news, HE Group (KLSE:HEGROUP) unit Hexatech Engineering bagged a subcontract worth about 102 million ringgit for electrical works at a data center project in Johor, Malaysia. Shares slid about 1% on Monday's close.
Japan's Ajinomoto (TYO:2802) has proposed taking its Malaysian subsidiary, Ajinomoto (Malaysia) (KLSE:AJI), private through a selective capital reduction and repayment exercise.