Market Open KLCI tumbles in early trade as regional markets get off to rocky start

by **Cals** Fri 26 Sep 2014, 18:21

Market Open KLCI tumbles in early trade as regional markets get off to rocky start

Business & Markets 2014

Written by Surin Murugiah of theedgemalaysia.com

Friday, 26 September 2014 09:06

KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 26): The FBM KLCI slumped in early trade on Friday, in line with the rocky regional markets.
At 9.05am, the FBM KLCI lost 11.98 points to 1,831.13.
Losers led gainers by 263 to 50, while 192 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 198.56 million shares valued at RM60.96 million.
The top losers included KLK, BAT, Hong Leong Bank, HLFG, Timecom, UMW,. DKSH, Lafarge Malaysia and Press Metals.
Regionally, Asian shares got off to a rocky start on Friday after a sharp drop on Wall Street, which curbed enthusiasm for the dollar even after the U.S. unit touched multi-year highs in the previous session, according to Reuters.
U.S. stocks ended sharply lower, as Apple Inc broke under key technical levels after the tech giant withdrew an update to its new operating system. That pushed the S&P 500 to its biggest one-day decline since July, it said.
M & A Securities research head Rosnani Rasul said Wall Street reversed yesterday’s gain and took more in fact as Thursday’s trading day marked one of its sharpest one-day losses yet year-to-day as the market was hit a series of bad news.
She said the S&P 500 and DJIA tumbled 32.31 (-1.62%) and 264.26 (-1.54%) points to end at 1,965.99 and 16,945.80 respectively.
Rosnani said the US dollar had gained strength against major currencies, signaling the potential weakness of global commodity prices.
Indeed, the rapid capital inflow ahead of the US next monetary move had resulted in the dollar to gain traction steadily, she said.
“Above all, the market was spooked by slower China economic indicator early this week and the risk of potential hike in US monetary rate given the strength of the Dollar.
“Sharper drop in index and also the uncertainty emanating from the Fed next monetary move would only hurt sentiment.
“The local and regional market will not be spared today,” she said.