REGIONAL markets mostly fell on Wednesday, tracking further overnight falls on Wall Street, where worries over the crash in oil prices, Greece and the eurozone all combined to send the Dow Jones Industrials Average and S&P 500 indices lower by 0.74% and 0.89%, respectively.

Malaysia tracked the falls in regional and global stock markets while the falling ringgit and oil prices fuelled further economic worries. The financial state of affairs at 1MDB also weighed on sentiment.

The FBM KLCI closed in the red yet again, falling 7.4 points or 0.43% to close at 1,709.18. This brings its loss so far to 52.1 points, or a 3.05% decline year-to-date. The benchmark index has fallen every single day so far this year.

On a positive note, the index’ decline yesterday was much less than previous days, and market breadth was mildly positive, with gainers outperforming losers.

This suggest that perhaps short-term selling pressure could be starting to ease after the recent steep falls. However, market sentiment is very much dependent on both external factors, such as Wall Street and oil prices, as well as internal factors, notably the ringgit’s movements.

The ringgit remained weak, extending yesterday’s 5 year low to trade at almost 3.58 vs the greenback at the point of writing. Crude oil prices slumped below the psychologically important US$50 per barrel mark.

I continue to be cautious on the outlook for Malaysian equities and have therefore kept my portfolio unchanged with a high cash holding level.

Currently, I am only holding Willowglen, which closed 1.5 sen higher at 73.5 sen yesterday.

My portfolio is currently registering a gain of 1.0 % since inception, and has still outperformed the benchmark KLCI by 10.7%.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on January 8, 2015.