KUALA LUMPUR (April 6): The FBM KLCI fell 5.11 points or 0.3% along with Asian shares after US equities' overnight drop. World shares fell on US Federal Reserve's meeting minutes, which indicated that the central bank should start reducing its US$4.5 trillion (about RM19.96 trillion) balance sheet this year.

Such sentiment led to expectation of further US interest rate hikes, which do not bode well for Asian markets. At Bursa Malaysia today, the KLCI closed at 1,739.56 points.

Across Asian share markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.4% while
Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.52%. In overnight US share trades,
the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2%, S&P 500 declined 0.31% while Nasdaq Composite was 0.58% lower.

Reuters reported that most Federal Reserve policymakers think the US central bank should take steps to begin trimming its balance sheet this year as long as the economic data holds up, Fed meeting minutes showed. The minutes also showed "some participants viewed equity prices as quite high relative to standard valuation measures."

“Either it scared participants because of talk that sounds like maybe (the stock market) is bubbling, or there is some thought that the normalization of the balance sheet is going to harm growth ... or we are going to get more (rate) hikes” than already expected, Janna Sampson, co-chief investment officer at OakBrook Investments LLC in Lisle, Illinois was quoted as saying.

At Bursa Malaysia, the KLCI fell on losses in index-linked shares like CIMB Group Holdings Bhd and Genting Bhd.
 
Genting fell 13 sen to RM9.33 to become Bursa Malaysia's seventh largest decliner. CIMB dropped seven sen to RM5.49.

Across Bursa Malaysia, 3.86 billion shares valued at RM3 billion were traded. Decliners outpaced gainers by 526 versus 452 respectively.

Maybank Investment Bank Bhd chartist Nik Ihsan Raja Abdullah told theedgemarkets.com: “The heavyweight counters are adjusting after staging rallies that were seen to be unsustainable. It will correct itself to a fair level which we are seeing now.”