Bearish sentiments pull markets lower

KUALA LUMPUR: Asian markets continued to bleed red ink with most major bourses closing in negative territory on Tuesday as the outlook on growth remain troubled with the United States and euro-zone sovereign debt crises remaining unresolved.

World Bank president Robert Zoellick told Bloomberg in an interview today that risks to the global economy was intensifying with the euro-zone's outlook dependent on right decisions being taken by policymakers. “We're moving into a dangerous period,” he said, adding that the 17-member currency union was facing a particularly sensitive time.

Although European markets opened higher, trading was volatile with the benchmark Stoxx Euro 600 Index opening lower. US equity futures were down with the S&P 500 futures shedding 1.53% and the Dow Jones futures dropping 1.45% at 5pm.

The Luxembourg-based European Union statistics office released data showing that the euro-area's slowed to a 0.2% year-on-year growth in the second quarter after expanding 0.8% in the previous quarter as government austerity measures began to make an impact.

Spot gold hovered around the US$1,885 to US$1,890 per ounce band although the metal hit an all-time high of US$1,921 per ounce earlier. US Treasury yields were down as demand rose.

Nymex crude oil was US$1.75 lower at US$84.70 per barrel at press time while crude palm oil for December delivery hovered below RM3,000 per tonne.

The local bourse's benchmark index was down 0.60% to 1,454.37 at close largely due to selective selling of bluechip stocks.

Losers outpaced gainers 423 to 253 while 279 other counters were traded unchanged. There were 706.60 million shares traded with a total turnover of RM1.51 billion.

Among the top losers were IOI, shedding 14 sen to RM4.56, Sime, down 13 sen to RM8.70 and CIMB, 10 sen lower to RM7.30.

Maybank was 5 sen lower at RM8.68, TNB dropped 6 sen to RM5.10 and Public Bank lost 4 sen to RM13.

DXN rose 31 sen to RM1.70 after the company received a conditional take-over offer yesterday while Bandar Raya Developments gained 13 sen to RM2.45 after the company announced major shareholder Ambang Sehati proposed to acquire several of the developer's assets.

BAT fell 24 sen to RM43.50 and JTI was 15 sen lower at RM6.60.

Petronas Chemicals was down 3 sen to RM6.30, Petronas Dagangan lost 16 sen to RM17.60 and Petronas Gas fell 16 sen to RM13.10.

Parkson shed 20 sen to RM5.45, Yong Tai tumbled 18 sen to 35 sen and Proton fell 21 sen to RM2.70.

Axiata was up 6 sen to RM4.71 and TM was 6 sen lower at RM4.32.

The ringgit was quoted at 2.982 to the US dollar and 4.231 to the euro.