Friday, January 2, 2015

Malaysia's key KLCI worst performer in Asia

Breaking News : Likes our Facebook page and join us as members, you will receive email updates and instant updates in Telegram group.



Malaysia’s 30-stock FBM KLCI, was the worst performer among the key Asian markets, ending 2014 down 5.66% on Wednesday as oil prices tumbled and the ringgit weakened, aggravated by heavy foreign fund selling. Shares on Bursa Malaysia opened the first trading day in the New Year on  a negative note as buying momentum remained subdued, dealers said. At 9.19am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 14.83 points easier at 1,746.42, after opening 4.1 points lower at 1,757.15.

A dealer said the market was taking a breather following the recent gains of the last two weeks.

“As long as the index does not retrace more than 50 per cent of the gains that was created on Dec 22, we believe the near-term bullish sentiment remains intact,” he added.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index lost 72.58 points to 11,993.7, the FBM 70 contracted 16.87 points to 13,048.21 and the FBM Ace shed 9.52 points to 5,643.87. The FBMT100 Index declined 74.431 points to 11,738.06 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index trimmed 88.311 points to 12,418.72. Sector-wise, the Finance Index fell 91.35 points to 15,613, the Plantation Index lost 63.5 points to 7,823.73 and the Industrial Index decreased 33.57 points to 3,145.53.

Losers outpaced gainers 160 to 76, while 121 counters were unchanged, 1,382 untraded and 9 others suspended. Among heavyweights, Maybank lost three sen to RM9.14, TNB and Axiata slipped two sen each to RM13.78 and RM7.03, respectively, Public Bank fell 20 sen to RM18.10 and Sime Darby eased 10 sen to RM9.09. Of actives, Minetech, Malayan United Industries and Pan Malaysia added half-a-sen each to 12.5 sen, 30.5 sen and 34 sen, respectively. Global Oriental lost two sen to 50 sen and PDZ slipped half-a-sen to 13.5 sen.

The ringgit was quoted at 3.4973 at 5pm, slightly firmer from the 3.4975 the previous day. Crude palm oil for third-month delivery fell RM17 to RM2,267 per tonne. Plantation-property giant Sime Darby fell 21 sen to RM9.19 while Batu Kawan and Genting Plantations lost 16 sen to RM17.34 and RM10.

However, FGV added five sen to RM2.18. KL Kepong jumped 50 sen to RM22.80, NSOP 40 sen to RM5, PPB Group gained 28 sen to RM14.30 and Sungai Bagan 21 sen to RM3.20.
Tenaga Nasional lost 16 sen to RM13.80. Among the telcos, DiGi was down seven sen to RM6.17, TM lost three sen to RM6.88 while Axiata and Maxis shed two sen each to RM7.05 and RM6.85.

US light crude oil was down 56 cents to US$53.56 and year-to-date, it was down 45.58%. Brent fell 87 cents to US$57.03 and year-to-date, it had fallen 48.53%.  

Most analysts are cautious on the outlook for the local equity market next year amid weak market sentiment. They believed that the first half of 2015 was expected to remain volatile due to macroeconomic headwinds, but were confident of seeing a stronger performance in the second half of the year underpinned by infrastructure spending. Some of them are more optimistic, projecting the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) to hit over 1,900-point level by the end of next year.

No comments:

Post a Comment