Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (March 9): The FBM KLCI fell 1.51 points or 0.1% after China's weaker external trade numbers continue to hit Asian shares.

At 5pm, the KLCI closed at 1,686.35 points after reaching an intraday low of 1,676.93. China's Shanghai Composite slid 1.34% while Japan's Nikkei 225 lost 0.84%.

Yesterday, the KLCI fell 10.07 points to 1,687.86.

Today, Reuters reported that sharp losses in Chinese stocks pulled Asian equities further away from two-month highs on Wednesday as weak trade figures from the world's second-biggest economy and wobbly oil prices revived concerns about global growth.

Yesterday, Reuters reported that China's February exports disappointed analysts' expectations, falling 25.4% from a year earlier, while imports fell by 13.8%.

That left the country with a trade surplus of US$32.59 billion for the month, the General Administration of Customs said on Tuesday. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected exports to fall by 12.5%, and predicted imports would fall by 10%.

In Malaysia today, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd technical analyst Loui Low Ley Yee told theedgemarkets.com that the KLCI pared losses on buying interest in blue chips.

"The market rebounded strongly after going down by about 11 points today to close slightly lower than the previous day," Low said.

Across Bursa Malaysia, there were 446 gainers versus 341 decliners. Trading volume was 1.83 billion shares worth RM1.9 billion.

Both AirAsia Bhd and AirAsia X Bhd dominated the top-active list.

P.I.E. Industrial Bhd led gainers while British American Tobacco (M) Bhd was the top decliner.

 

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