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 (Sept 5): The FBM KLCI slipped 17.26 points or 0.95% with Asian markets on US-China trade war escalation concerns. Such sentiment led to the ringgit's depreciation against a strengthening US dollar.
At Bursa Malaysia, the KLCI closed at its intraday low at 1,795.5 points. Across Bursa Malaysia, 2.91 billion shares were traded for RM2.92 billion as investors took cue from Asian equity losses.
In China, the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite lost 1.68% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 2.61%. Elsewhere across Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 dropped 0.51% while South Korea's Kospi was 1.03% lower.
Reuters reported that a looming deadline in the US-China trade conflict kept the dollar near two-week highs on Wednesday, inflicting fresh losses on emerging markets and sending world stocks lower for the fourth day in a row.
It was reported that a public comment period on the possibility of fresh US tariffs on another US$200 billion of Chinese goods ends on Thursday, with expectations that the additional levies will be imposed by US President Donald Trump.
In Malaysia today, Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice president Vincent Lau told theedgemarkets.com that the contagion effect on emerging markets continued amid lingering US-China trade war concerns.
“Meanwhile, there is the lingering trade war concerns. This is expected to persist until central banks in emerging markets address the economic concerns that can raise market confidence.
“However, we note that our (Malaysian) fundamentals remain strong. Export counters stand to gain (as the ringgit weakened). Profit-taking was evident today. I don’t think the contagion effect will blow over soon,” Lau said.
The ringgit depreciated to 4.1477 against the US dollar at the time of writing. Over the last one year, the exchange rate was between 3.8533 and 4.2695.
Source: The Edge
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