KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia snapped its five-day winning streak to close lower on Wednesday, as investors took profit following a cumulative gain of 4.25 per cent over the past five sessions, said an analyst. At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 14.76 points or 0.83 per cent to 1,756.49 from Tuesday’s close of 1,771.25. The market bellwether opened 1.46 points lower at 1,769.79, marking the day’s high, and hit a low of 1,750.05 during the mid-afternoon session. Market breadth was negative with losers trouncing gainers 876 to 384, while 525 counters were unchanged, 964 untraded and 94 suspended. Turnover improved to 3.65 billion units worth RM4.41 billion from Tuesday's 3.58 billion units worth RM4.46 billion.
KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 19): The FBM KLCI fell 3.49 points or 0.2% as the ringgit weakened against the US dollar to levels seen during the 1998 Asian financial crisis.
At 5pm today, the KLCI closed at 1,634.30 points. The ringgit depreciated to its weakest level against the US dollar so far today at 4.4805. Bloomberg reported that the exchange rate was the weakest since January 1998.
Today, JF Apex Securities Bhd research head Lee Chung Cheng told theedgemarkets.com: "Basically the market's performance today is in line with US markets (which were also down) and weak ringgit. We believe there is a lack of catalysts to excite the local market at this point."
The ringgit weakened after the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates last week and indicated further hikes in 2017. Such sentiment was in anticipation of higher US inflation due to US President-elect Donald Trump's planned expansionary fiscal policies.
At Bursa Malaysia today, the exchange saw 1.33 billion shares valued at RM1.35 billion traded.
There were 307 gainers and 401 decliners.
Source: The Edge
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