STOCKS on the local bourse continued to trade lower on Monday, closing in the red for the second day of the new year. Sentiment for Malaysian equities stayed weak on the back of falling crude oil prices and the sliding ringgit. 

The FBM KLCI fell a substantial 16.15 points, or 0.93% to close at 1,736.6. Losers outpaced gainers by a nearly 2-to-1 ratio on volume of 1.4 billion shares.

This brings its losses for the first two trading days of the year to 24.7 points or a year-to-date loss of 1.4%.  

Market sentiment was depressed by the continued fall in crude oil prices, which hit fresh 5 ½ year lows . Brent and WTI traded at $55.5 and $51.8 per barrel, respectively, as US output surged to the highest in over three decades.  The ringgit, meanwhile, continued to decline versus the greenback, hitting 3.538 in late afternoon trading yesterday. 

Elsewhere, major stock markets in the US and Asia closed mixed, while European stocks were up in anticipation of increased stimulus by the European Central Bank.

I continue to be cautious on the outlook for Malaysian equities, and have therefore have kept my portfolio unchanged.

Currently, I am only holding Willowglen, which closed 2 sen higher to end at 73.5 sen yesterday. Willowglen is one of ten stocks recommended by InsiderAsia for 2015.

My portfolio is currently registering a gain of 1% since inception, and has still outperformed the benchmark KLCI by 9.2%.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on January 6, 2015.