KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 5 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia closed lower on Friday amid mixed regional market performance as investors turned cautious over a possible rate hike by the Bank of Japan (BOJ) and upcoming US economic data that may influence the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) interest rate decision next week. At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) pared most earlier losses to settle 4.55 points easier, or 0.28 per cent, to 1,616.52 from Thursday’s close of 1,621.07. The benchmark index, which opened 0.37 of-a-point lower at 1,620.70, moved between 1,609.67 and 1,621.25 throughout the day. The broader market was negative, with decliners outpacing advancers 604 to 439. A total of 550 counters were unchanged, 1,151 untraded, and 18 suspended. Turnover declined to 3.17 billion units worth RM2.24 billion from 4.48 billion units worth RM2.75 billion yesterday. Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-presiden...
KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 17): Malaysian stocks closed higher today with the FBM KLCI up 6.2 points or 0.35% at 1,783.47 points, but underperforming its regional peers as investors here remained in profit-taking mode.
"The big event to watch out for next week will be the prime minister's official visit to China," TA Securities senior technical analyst Stephen Soo told theedgemarkets.com.
He opined that the market is likely to continue trading sideways as investors await signals from the visit, amid global economic concerns.
"The momentum going forward may be softer, with the benchmark index likely to test the downside support level of 1,750 points," he said, adding that the upcoming mid-week Hari Raya Haji holiday may also result in lower participation and that the index faces a substantial resistance level of 1,805 points.
Market breadth was positive today with 410 gainers outpacing 370 decliners. A total of 2 billion shares were crossed for RM2.04 billion.
QES Group Bhd, Inari Amerton Bhd and Euro Holdings Bhd were the most active stocks. Gainers were led by British American Tobacco (Malaysia) Bhd, IQ Group Holdings Bhd and Malaysian Pacific Industries Bhd, while the top losers were Nestle (Malaysia) Bhd, Ajinomoto (Malaysia) Bhd and Lysaght Galvanized Steel Bhd.
Regionally, Asian stocks rebounded from hitting fresh one-year lows yesterday after investors appeared buoyed by news that the US and China had resumed lower level talks on trade tensions.
The Turkish lira also continued to recover after plunging to a record low earlier this week, Reuters highlighted.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.46%, while Japan's Nikkei ended the week up 0.35% and Hang Seng index also finished up 0.42%.
Source: The Edge

Comments
Post a Comment