Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 14): The FBM KLCI fell 15.79 points or 0.94% today, as fading risk appetite weighed on Malaysian stocks in this holiday-shortened week.

This is the third consecutive trading day that the benchmark index has fallen, closing at 1,661.39. It has earlier fall to its intra-day low at 1,659.20, below the support level of 1,600 expected by technical analyst.

Reuters reported Southeast Asian stock markets traded lower in line with Asian peers, as rising bond yields and volatility forced investors to unwind positions, while uncertainty over global central banks’ next moves hurt risk appetite.

Japan’s Nikkei slipped as banks dropped on Bank of Japan’s negative rate worries, said Reuters.

Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.69%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.11%. Singapore’s STI also edged lower by 0.27% and Shanghai SE composite fell 0.68%.

As for the local market, things are also looking rather volatile, said Inter-Pacific Research Sdn Bhd’s head of research Pong Teng Siew.

“Volatility begets more volatility and that’s where we seem to be at the moment. For the earlier part of the year, we have seen investment funds adopting a similar strategy that sees a lot of inflows into the equity, but now as the risk appetite fades, we are seeing a decline in a lot of these risky assets. The ringgit has weakened, the oil has dropped and every risky asset class seems to be suffering,” Pong said.

Pong viewed the market moving forward to be relatively on the downside.

Across Bursa Malaysia, trading volume remained low, with 1.40 billion shares worth RM1.82 billion exchanging hands. There were 533 decliners, more than double the 265 gainers. Another 351 counters were unchanged.

United Plantations Bhd was the top gainer, while British American Tobacco (M) Bhd was the leading decliner for the day. DBE Gurney Resources Bhd was the top active counter, with 47.98 million shares traded.

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