S&P warning on Europe dampens Asian investor sentiment

by **hlk** Tue 06 Dec 2011, 13:45

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 6): Asian markets fell on Tuesday ahead of a crucial eurozone summit this weekend as investor confidence was sapped by the possibility of a widespread credit rating downgrade affecting European nations.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's late Monday warned it might downgrade euro zone countries en masse, piling pressure on European leaders ahead of a summit later this week, according to Reuters.

The unprecedented warning brought to a halt a rally in global equities that began last week and had continued on Monday, when the leaders of France and Germany agreed a plan aimed at guiding the region out of its two-year-old debt crisis, it said.

The FBM KLCI fell 10.17 points to 1,479.78 at 10am, weighed by losses at blue chip stocks.

Losers led gainers by 256 to 128, while 205 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 596.97 million shares valued at RM239.19 million.

At the regional markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 0.77% to 8,628.60, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.86% to 19,015.14, the Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.15% to 2,329.63, Taiwan’s Taiex lost 1.09% to 7,020.98, South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.87% to 1,906.25 and Singapore’s Straits Times Index shed 0.52% to 2,751.72.

On Bursa Malaysia, the top losers included BAT that fell 56 sen to RM47.54, KLK down 38 sen to RM21.60, Petronas Dagangan 22 sen to RM16.98, Hong Leong Bank 16 sen to RM10.68, Lafarge Malayan Cement 12 sen to RM6.63, UMW 11 sen to RM6.60 while Batu Kawan, Sime Darby and MISC fell 10 sen each to RM17, RM8.88 and RM6.02.

Among the gainers at mid-morning, Orient added 23 sen to RM4.71, United PLANTATION []s 14 sen to RM18.50, Proton 12 sen to RM4.62, Tan Chong 10 sen to RM4.28, QSR, CBIP and Latexx nine sen each to RM6.05, RM4.72 and RM1.97, while APM added seven sen to RM4.42.

The actives included Compugates, Sanichi, Proton warrants, DRB-Hicom warrants and Utopia.