KUALA LUMPUR (June 25): The FBM KLCI fell 13.43 points or 0.89% to 1489.2 as investors reacted to the World Bank’s downgrade of Malaysia’s economic growth forecast with a larger contraction of 3.1% this year from 0.1% estimated in April.

Market breadth was led by 713 losers to 249 gainers, with a total of 4.49 billion shares traded worth RM2.49 billion.

Maybank Investment Bank Bhd remisier Jeffry Azizi Jaafar pointed out that the World Bank had also said that Malaysia’s economy remains resilient and rests on strong fundamentals such as diversified economic structure, sound financial system and effective public health response.

“The bank also suggests that Malaysia will be able to ride out the storm better than many other countries,” Jeffry told theedgemarkets.com.

He also noted that only two out of the 30 index-link stocks closed up, namely RHB Bank Bhd and PPB Group Bhd, with the rest of the 28 stocks closing lower.

Laggards dragging the KLCI down today were Genting Malaysia Bhd which fell 2.66% or seven sen to RM2.56, Axiata Group Bhd which fell 2.59% or nine sen to RM3.39 and Hap Seng Consolidated Bhd which fell 2.22% or 19 sen to RM8.36.

Elsewhere in Asia, markets fell on news of several US States reporting record jumps in COVID-19 cases, while the World Health Organization said it expects the number of global cases to touch 10 million next week, according to Reuters.

The International Monetary Fund’s downgrade to global economic projections also dented sentiment, it said.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 1.22% and the Hang Seng index dropped 0.5%, while the Shanghai composite index gained 0.3%.