KUALA LUMPUR (March 4): The FBM KLCI closed down 7.19 points or 0.45% today tracking the negative performance of Asian equities after an overnight surge in bond yields again dragged shares on Wall Street.

At 5pm, the benchmark index closed at 1,581.26 points. Today, the index had mostly traded in negative territory, ranging between 1,577.39 and 1,590.46 — compared with yesterday’s closing of 1,588.45.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd senior analyst Kenneth Leong told theedgemarkets.com the weakness in the local bourse performance today was in line with regional markets after Wall Street dropped yesterday due to rising Treasury yield.

The rising yield has sparked investors' concerns that this may prompt central banks to raise ultra-low interest rates, which is bad for the equity market.

Leong added that the abovementioned event overshadowed the fact that Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) maintained the overnight policy rate (OPR) at 1.75% during the afternoon session. Nonetheless, banking stocks surged in apparent reaction to the BNM’s decision on OPR rate.

Index-linked banking counters like Hong Leong Bank Bhd, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd, Hong Leong Financial Group Bhd, Malayan Banking Bhd and RHB Bank Bhd all ended in positive performance.

However, the gain in banking stocks was mitigated by the weakness of other KLCI components stocks, including Supermax Corp Bhd, Top Glove Corp Bhd, Hartalega Holdings Bhd, Press Metal Aluminium Holdings Bhd and MISC Bhd.

Across the local bourse, decliners dominated with 701 counters dropping versus 444 gaining, while 434 were unchanged.

Trading volume was 9.63 billion shares worth RM5.37 billion compared with 10.78 billion shares worth RM6.18 billion traded yesterday.

Notable decliners included Fraser & Neave Holdings Bhd, Unisem (M) Bhd,  ViTrox Corp Bhd, KESM Industries Bhd, Kelington Group Bhd and Aeon Credit Service (M) Bhd.

Meanwhile, notable gainers included Heineken (M) Bhd, Hong Leong Bank Bhd, Hong Leong Financial Group Bhd, Tasco Bhd, Paragon Union Bhd, MSM Malaysia Holdings Bhd, Dataprep Holdings Bhd, Rapid Synergy Bhd and Carlsberg Brewey (M) Bhd.

Of the actives, XOX Bhd topped the actively traded stock again for the second straight day with 682.90 million shares traded. It closed down one sen to seven sen. Others included Key Alliance Group Bhd, Dagang NeXchange Bhd, Asia Pac Holdings Bhd, Minetec Resources Bhd and Green Ocean Corp Bhd.

Reuters reported that China and Indonesia led a sell-off in Asia's emerging stock markets on Thursday as US Treasury yields rose again, raising renewed doubts about continued monetary support and global growth.

Across Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 2.13% while South Korea's Kospi dropped 1.28%. In China, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 2.15% while the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index closed down 2.05%.