KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 5): The FBM KLCI fell 0.74% at the midday break amid further weakening of the ringgit, which hit a five year-low against the greenback.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI lost 12.90 points to 1,739.87 as market breadth turned negative.

Losers led gainers by 423 to 203, while 238 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 822.21 million shares valued at RM550.26 million.

The ringgit was traded at 3.5413 versus the dollar as at 12.30 pm.  

The top losers included British American Tobacco (M) Bhd, Public Bank Bhd, Petronas Gas Bhd, Hong Leong Financial Group Bhd, UMW Holdings Bhd, Nestle (M) Bhd, KMPJ Healthcare Bhd, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd and AirAsia Bhd.

The actively traded counters included Minetech Resources Bhd, Malayan United Industries Bhd, Hubline Bhd, AirAsia Bhd, Jobstreet Corporation Bhd and Benalec Holdings Bhd.

The gainers included Oriental Holdings Bhd, LTKM Bhd, Carlsberg Brewery (M) Bhd, Amway (M) Holdings Bhd and My E.G. Services Bhd.

At the global markets, the euro hit a nearly nine-year low versus the dollar on Monday as investors bet on quantitative easing by the European Central Bank while Asian shares were subdued as soft manufacturing surveys soured the mood, according to Reuters.

The euro fell to as low as $1.18605, its weakest level since March 2006, having fallen below an important support at $1.20. The common currency last traded at $1.1955, down 0.4 percent from late U.S. trade on Friday, it said.

In an interview with German financial daily Handelsblatt, ECB President Mario Draghi said the risk of the central bank not fulfilling its mandate of preserving price stability was higher now than half a year ago, said Reuters.

JF Apex Securities Research said U.S. stocks ended near unchanged on Friday, with the S&P 500 down for a third session, after economic reports showed manufacturing slowing but still in expansionary mode at the end of 2014.

Meanwhile, it said European shares closed mixed after European, U.S. and Chinese manufacturing data disappointed.

“On the local market, the FBM KLCI fell 8.48 points to 1752.77 points.

“With the lacklustre performance in the US and Europe, we expect further downside for the KLCI after failing to break the resistance of 1765 points,” it said.

Meanwhile, Malaysia was the biggest loser in 2014 in terms of foreign fund outflow, suffering a net sale of U$2 billion (RM7.06 billion), the the biggest outflow since the 2008 crisis exodus, according to MIDF Research.

In his weekly fund flow report Monday, MIDF Research head Zulkifli Hamzah the FBM KLCI, the best performing Southeast Asian market in 2013, received a heavy knockdown in 2014 as it ended the year at the bottom spot.

“We believe this privation was brought about by a confluence of factors. Firstly, due to our earlier outperformance, the FBM KLCI was among the most expensive market based on valuation-term in early 2014.

“Thus in January last year, we forewarned of the possibility 'that without favourable earnings revision going forward, the tendency for the market to mean revert may result in FBM KLCI underperforming its peers this year'”, he said.

Zulkifli said that unfortunately, the situation after that was less than favourable as witnessed by the persistent downward earnings revisions of the past four consecutive reporting seasons.

“Secondly, our part dependence on oil and gas as an important source of state revenue was dealt a blow in view of the falling crude prices,” he said.