KUALA LUMPUR (March 23): The FBM KLCI closed 3.33% lower on Monday as it tracked losses in Wall Street along with other regional indices, as the Covid-19 pandemic crisis deepens in Malaysia and globally.
At 5pm, the benchmark index further extended earlier losses to close down 43.4 points to 1,259.88 points, as most component stocks went into the red.
The decline came despite news that Putrajaya will announce a more comprehensive economic stimulus package to address the Covid-19 outbreak impact on March 30 next week.
Elsewhere, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 4.86%, South Korea’s Kospi fell 5.34% and China’s SSE Composite Index fell 3.11%.
“Asian market follows the trend in the US, where there is a hiccup in the Congress’ rescue talks, raising concerns towards recession risk in the world’s biggest economy,” Danny Wong Teck Meng told theedgemarkets.com, when contacted.
“The market remains volatile, we must follow the trend of new cases globally to determine when the crisis bottoms,” Wong added.
The New York Times reported that futures markets signalled that Wall Street would open sharply lower.
Investors were reacting in part to a political stalemate in the US. Senate Democrats on Sunday blocked an emerging deal to prop up the American economy, halting the progress of a nearly US$2 trillion government rescue package, it reported.
Across Bursa Malaysia, there were 771 decliners against 161 gainers, while 218 counters traded unchanged. Trading volume stood at 2.8 billion shares, valued at some RM2.32 billion.
Decliners were led by consumer counters Fraser & Neave Bhd, Carlsberg Brewery (M) Bhd and Panasonic Manufacturing (M) Bhd.
Gainers were led by Bintulu Port Holdings Bhd, Hong Leong Bank Bhd and MB World Group Bhd.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian ringgit weakened further against the US dollar. At the time of writing, it was trading at 4.4470 to the greenback.
The ringgit remains under pressure as oil prices remain low at the US$25/bbl range, with no respite in sight over the oil price war triggered by Saudi Arabia.