The Bank of Russia unexpectedly maintained its key interest rate at a record-high 21% , defying analysts’ expectations of another significant hike as inflation remains stubbornly elevated. The decision marks a shift toward a more measured approach in balancing economic growth and price stability. Key Details Inflation Concerns: Annual inflation climbed to 8.9% in November, well above the central bank’s 4% target , with inflation expectations reaching 13.9% in December. Policy Rationale: The central bank cited the significant tightening of monetary conditions after October’s 200-basis point hike as sufficient to resume disinflationary processes. Governor Elvira Nabiullina emphasized avoiding both economic overheating and severe slowdowns. Economic Overheating: Elevated government spending on the war in Ukraine and social programs, coupled with labor shortages and rising wages, have fueled strong domestic demand, exacerbating price pressures...
KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 10): A not-so-rosy picture for glove makers' prospects put a dent on the market as Top Glove Corp Bhd and Hartalega Holdings Bhd dragged down Bursa Malaysia to end at its intraday low on Friday (Dec 10).
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI settled 12.91 points lower at 1,488.88, compared with 1,501.79 at Thursday’s close.
The market bellwether opened 0.14 of a point lower at 1,501.65 and hit its highest of 1,505.41 before dropping.
Market breadth remained weak for the whole day with losers trouncing gainers 596 to 277, while 454 counters were unchanged, 978 untraded and 52 others suspended.
Turnover decreased to 2.6 billion units valued at RM1.74 billion from Thursday’s 2.73 billion units valued at RM1.59 billion.
Normalised average selling prices and demand following mass vaccine roll-outs on a global scale put pressure on Top Glove's earnings for the first quarter ended Nov 30, 2021.
Earlier on Friday, the company announced a sharp drop in net profit to RM185.72 million from RM2.36 billion recorded for the same quarter of the previous year.
Revenue shrank to RM1.58 billion from RM4.76 billion previously.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said market sentiment was further weakened by the spillover effect of the regional selldown.
Key equity indices, namely Nikkei, the Straits Times Index, the Shanghai Composite Index, the Hang Seng Index and KOSPI, were all in the red and in sync with the overnight Wall Street's bearish performance.
Thong said investors were awaiting the US inflation data to be released on Friday, which might influence the US Federal Reserve's decision on when to roll back economic stimulus.
"Additionally, some investors opted to book profit, particularly in oil and gas and technology stocks, amid a weaker oil market and Nasdaq," he told Bernama.
On the home front, Top Glove fell 10.4% or 25 sen to RM2.16 and Hartalega slid 32 sen to RM5.20.
CIMB Group Holdings Bhd and Axiata Group Bhd dipped six sen each to RM5.18 and RM3.78 respectively, while Petronas Gas Bhd and Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd eased four sen each to RM16.46 and RM8.42 respectively.
However, Tenaga Nasional Bhd remained positive, gaining five sen to RM9.16, and MISC Bhd was four sen higher at RM6.56.
Of the actives, Malaysian Genomics Resource Centre Bhd gave up 3.5 sen to 78.5 sen, while Kanger International Bhd, Sapura Energy Bhd and Impiana Hotels Bhd were unchanged at two sen, five sen and nine sen respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index dipped 92.04 points to 10,859.79, the FBMT 100 Index slipped 93.01 points to 10,561.57 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 127.14 points to 11,714.25.
The FBM 70 fell 129.45 points to 14,046.03 and the FBM ACE slid 53.76 points to 6,228.32.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index shed 1.03 points to 193.30, the Financial Services Index dropped 55.80 points to 15,109.33 and the Plantation Index eased 28.51 points to 6,466.49.
Main Market volume narrowed to 1.48 billion shares valued at RM1.45 billion versus Thursday’s 1.76 billion shares valued at RM1.4 billion.
Warrant turnover widened to 236.09 million units worth RM33.01 million against 219.15 million units worth RM43.81 million.
ACE Market volume rose to 823.75 million shares valued at RM261.61 million from 624.22 million shares valued at RM144.37 million previously.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 351.25 million shares traded on the Main Market, followed by industrial products and services (383.58 million), construction (47.46 million), technology (204.55 million), special purpose acquisition companies (nil), financial services (57.01 million), property (79.78 million), plantation (9.53 million), real estate investment trusts (7.13 million), closed/funds (22,400), energy (141.98 million), healthcare (137.41 million), telecommunications and media (24.46 million), transportation and logistics (16.82 million), and utilities (16.37 million).
Source: The Edge
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