KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 8 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia closed almost flat on Tuesday as buying interest rotated away from index heavyweights towards smaller-cap construction stocks, with sentiment affected by geopolitical uncertainty, said an analyst. At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 0.39 of a point to 1,714.40 from Monday’s close of 1,714.79. The benchmark index opened 1.65 points lower at 1,713.14 and moved between 1,710.44 and 1,714.50 throughout the trading session. The broader market was almost evenly balanced, with decliners leading gainers 548 to 546, while 598 counters were unchanged, 1,107 were untraded and 25 were suspended. Turnover expanded to 4.13 billion units valued at RM3.14 billion from 3.60 billion units valued at RM2.45 billion on Monday.
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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