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.
LONDON: Financial markets are betting that Russia, South Africa, Turkey and Colombia could all be next in line for "junk" debt status after Standard and Poor's stripped Brazil of its investment grade. As well as those now teetering on the investment grade/junk cusp, China, Chile, Malaysia, South Africa, Mexico, Indonesia, Thailand, Israel, Saudi Arabia and much of the Middle East are also priced for rating cuts according to some data. Brazil's downgrade had long been expected following recent scandals and its slump towards recession, but it has sharpened the focus on who could be next. Slumping commodity prices and the prospect of rising global interest rates are adding to some liberal helpings of ugly national politics and laying bare a number of countries' failure to reform in the good times. S&P's Capital IQ unit has what it calls Market Derived Signal (MDS) models that show credit default swap markets currently expecting a major wave of EM...