KUALA LUMPUR, March 28 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia closed lower today on profit-taking after a strong three-day rally, and investor sentiment was further shaken in the late afternoon session following news of an earthquake in Myanmar with tremors felt in neighbouring Thailand, said Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng. At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slid 1.44 per cent or 22.08 points to 1,513.65, its intraday low, from Thursday’s close of 1,535.73. The benchmark index opened 4.16 points lower at 1,531.57 and hit an intraday high of 1,533.52 during the midday session. On the broader market, decliners outpaced gainers 563 to 395, while 408 counters were unchanged, 1,106 untraded, and 133 suspended. Turnover slipped to 2.25 billion units valued at RM2.13 billion from 2.52 billion units worth RM2.41 billion on Thursday.
The global economy crisis has led the central banks all over the world to reduce the interest rates to close to 0% which is the all time low. With interest rates that low, borrowing has been cheap which can indirectly spurs the economy - low interest rates, company can borrow to for company expansion, people can borrow more to buy properties and people are forced to spend their money or savings. In fact, the global stock market has been rallying non-stop since March 2009 because of low interest rates and this lead to the presumption that global economy has recovered, although the jobless in the United States stays at 10%. Some has the feeling that the stock market and commodities rally was led by low interest rate because people starting to treat stock market as just another legalized casino. Nevertheless, I do believe we are on the way of recovery but this road is expected to have a lot of potholes. With recovery on the way, central banks will be slowly starting to raise the interest...