KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 13): The FBM KLCI stayed firmly below the crucial 1,700-point level at mid-morning today, in line with the weaker regional stock exchanges.
At 10am, the FBM KLCI lost 0.72% or 12.19 points to 1,683.95.
Losers led gainers by 489 to 102, while 187 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 536.91 million shares valued at RM296.28 million.
The top losers included Dutch Lady Milk Industries Bhd, Panasonic Malaysia Manufacturing Bhd, Heineken Malaysia Bhd, Malaysian Pacific Industries Bhd, KESM Industries Bhd, ViTrox Corp Bhd, Hong Leong Bank Bhd, Apex Healthcare Bhd and IOI Corp Bhd.
The actives included Securemetric Bhd, Orion IXL Bhd, Sapura Energy Bhd, Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd, Sino Hua-An International Bhd, Tiger Synergy Bhd and Inari Amertron Bhd.
The gainers included Securemetric, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd, Hong Leong Financial Group Bhd, Cahya Mata Sarawak Bdh and United Plantations Bhd.
Asian shares stumbled on Tuesday after a rout in tech stocks inflicted a hefty sell-off on Wall Street, while the dollar hit a 16-month peak on safe haven bets amid political risks in Europe and acrimonious Sino-U.S. trade relations, according to Reuters,
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.4 percent to a 1-1/2 week trough, with Australian and New Zealand shares opening sharply lower, it said.
Hong Leong IB Research in a traders’ brief said at Wall Street, investors will be singing the cautious tune over the near term with the rising concerns over global growth outlook amid the uncertain trade disputes between the US and China as Washington may increase the current tariffs of 10% to 25% on US$200 billion by Jan 2019.
“Hence, the upside could be capped around the 26,300-26,552.
“Tracking the heavy selling pressure on global markets, stocks on the local bourse could be having similar fate and the FBM KLCI may extend its retracement phase towards the recent support of 1,673.
“We could also expect selling pressure on the O&G sector to emerge amid weaker overnight oil prices,” it said.