Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 29): The FBM KLCI closed down 7.09 points or 0.42% at 1,690.41 today after US shares fell overnight on Monday and as US criminal charges against China's telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd added uncertainty to prospects of China-US trade talks on Wednesday and Thursday (Jan 30 and 31).

In China stock markets today, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed down 0.16% while the Shanghai Composite fell 0.1%. Elsewhere across Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 and South Korea’s Kospi erased losses to close up 0.08% and 0.28% respectively.

Reuters reported that Asian shares stumbled on Tuesday and the dollar hovered near two-week lows as prospects for a long-awaited Sino-US trade deal were dealt another blow after the US levelled sweeping criminal charges against Huawei.

It was reported that despite the late uptick in share prices, the mood was still gloomy after the US Justice Department unsealed indictments against Huawei accusing it of bank and wire fraud to evade Iran sanctions and conspiring to steal trade secrets from T-Mobile US Inc.

Overnight on Wall Street, it was reported that the Dow and S&P 500 each closed down 0.8 percent and the Nasdaq was off more than 1 percent. It was reported that the losses came as shares of Caterpillar and Nvidia Corp nosedived after the two manufacturers joined a growing list of companies cautioning about the crippling effects of softening Chinese demand.

In Malaysia today, Areca Capital Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Danny Wong Teck Meng told theedgemarkets.com that the market’s performance was not out of the norm given that US markets had closed overnight in the red.

“The (Malaysian) market’s [downward] performance today is expected, as investors await more clarity from the US and China trade talks tomorrow and day after,” Wong said.

Across Bursa Malaysia today, 2.23 billion shares worth RM2.03 billion were traded. Top decliners included KLCI stocks Axiata Group Bhd and Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd.

Sapura Energy Bhd was the most-actively traded with some 426 million shares changing hands. Sapura Energy closed 1.5 sen down at its record low at 27 sen after falling to its all-time intraday low at 26.5 sen today

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