Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (March 18): The FBM KLCI is precariously poised to close lower for the fifth day running as a slew of ominous news flow kept investors on tenterhooks, while index-linked blue chips continued their downtrend.

Asia-Pacific economic growth in 2020 will more than halve to less than 3% as the global economy enters a recession, said S&P Global Ratings.

Separately, oil briefly traded below its lowest settlement price in almost 17 years as the Covid-19 pandemic threatens to bring the global economy to a standstill, battering demand just as supply explodes.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 1.94 points to 1,258.52. The index had earlier risen to a high of 1,275.23.

Market breadth turned negative as losers outpaced gainers by 437 to 187, while 409 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 1.48 billion shares valued at RM1.09 billion.

Leading the index-linked laggards were Press Metal Aluminium Holdings Bhd, Hap Seng Consolidated Bhd, Public Bank Bhd, AMMB Holdings Bhd and Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd.

The gainers included Nestle (M) Bhd, PPB Group Bhd, Fraser & Neave Holdings Bhd, Spritzer Bhd and Petronas Dagangan Bhd.

The actives included Borneo Oil Bhd, Bumi Armada Bhd, Dagang NeXchange Bhd, Sapura Energy Bhd and Velesto Energy Bhd.

Reuters said US stock futures and several Asian shares fell in choppy trade on Wednesday, as worries about the coronavirus pandemic eclipsed hopes broad policy support would combat the economic fallout of the outbreak.

Most traditional safe-haven assets were also under pressure as battered investors looked to unwind their damaged positions, leading to wide discrepancies between various markets, it said.

Kenanga IB Research said Asian markets were mostly down, tracking Dow Jones losses.

It said that yesterday, Asian markets closed lower following the Dow Jones overnight performance as investors stayed pessimistic on the impact of the Covid-19 virus.

“Back home, the FBM KLCI lost 24.05 points (-1.88%) to finish at 1,256.58.

“Chart-wise, the index remains below all the key SMAs.

“Coupled with the bearish MACD signal, we expect the index to remain under pressures ahead.

“On the chart, we have lowered our support levels to 1,240 (S1) (61.8% retracement level from the trough in 2009 to the peak in 2018) and 1,200 (S2),” it said.

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