KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 23): The FBM KLCI fell 1.32% at the midday break today, in line with the slump at most regional markets.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI lost 21.40 points to 1,613.97.

Losers outpaced gainers by 470 to 292, while 253 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 1.06 billion shares, valued at RM980.67 million.

The top losers included Public Bank Bhd, British American Tobacco (M) Bhd, Genting Bhd, Uzma Bhd, Petronas Gas Bhd, NCB Holdings Bhd, Lay Hong Bhd, Apollo Food Holdings Bhd, Axiata Group Bhd and Sime Darby Bhd.

The actively-traded stocks included UEM Sunrise Bhd, APFT Bhd, AirAsia Bhd, IFCA MSC Bhd, Frontken Corporation Bhd, AirAsia X Bhd and Aemulus Holdings Bhd.

The top gainers included KESM Industries Bhd, Panasonic Malaysia Manufacturing Bhd, Top Glove Corporation Bhd, IQ Group Bhd, UEM Sunrise and United Malacca Bhd.

Asian stocks fell on Wednesday, as fears of an entrenched global economic slowdown gripped investors, underlined by a weak factory survey from China, while the greenback firmed as investors fled to relatively safe-haven assets, according to Reuters.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 2%, with Australia down 1.8% and South Korea falling 1%. S&P mini futures fell 1%, after the weak China PMI, it said.

BIMB Securities Research said in Asia, it was a mixed picture yesterday (Sept 22), but markets within the SEA region all posted losses.

Locally, it said the FBM KLCI lost a further 4.1 points to close at 1,635.37, with foreign funds resuming their selling again, with a net outflow of RM185.5 million yesterday.

“Interestingly, Bank Negara reported its foreign reserves for Sept 15 was up 0.63% or US$600 million to US$95.3 billion, from US$94.7 billion as at Aug 28.

“We expect the local bourse to remain stuck in narrow trading range of between 1,635/1,640 today,” it said.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)