KUALA LUMPUR (May 6): The FBM KLCI closed 4.5 points or 0.27% lower amid weaker Asian stock markets after US President Donald Trump threatened to raise US tariffs on Chinese goods.

At 5pm, the KLCI closed at 1,632.8 after falling to its intraday low at 1,623.61. Across Bursa Malaysia, 2.79 billion shares worth RM1.7 billion were traded as decliners outdid gainers by a stark 684 to 162.

In China, the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite closed down 5.58% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 2.9%. Elsewhere across Asia, South Korea and Japan markets were closed today for public holidays.

US stock futures were also lower. At 5:39pm, the S&P and Dow futures fell 1.79% and 1.91% respectively while Nasdaq futures dropped 2.28%.

Reuters reported today that Trump stunned global markets with a tweet late on Sunday announcing he would hike US tariffs on US$200 billion worth of Chinese goods this week and target hundreds of billions more soon, saying trade talks with China were going too slowly.

It was reported that he would raise tariffs on the US$200 billion of Chinese goods to 25 percent on Friday from 10 percent. It was reported that he also said he would target a further US$325 billion of Chinese goods with 25 percent tariffs "shortly".

In Malaysia today, Areca Capital Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Danny Wong Teck Meng told theedgemarkets.com: “Our market is defensive, therefore, less selling pressure.

“Though factors that will be looked at are policy direction on economic growth as well as certain industries such as infrastructure, we still need a clearer picture on this.”

He said this today as investors looked ahead to Bank Negara Malaysia's (BNM) monetary policy statement tomorrow. At its latest monetary policy committee meeting in March, BNM said the committee decided to maintain the overnight policy rate at 3.25%.