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.
If you look at the last six months, you will see that the Ringgit (RM) has been the second worst performing currency in Asia, after the yen. Ringgit (RM) crisis Two weeks ago, it breached the 3.4 level against the USD. On Dec 5th, it touched 3.4757 before closing at 3.4713. From the Ringgit's year high of 3.1463 recorded on August 27, the Ringgit has lost 10.3% of its value against the greenback. Last week alone there is a decline of 2.6%. While the yen's fall is due to the deliberate policy move by the Bank of Japan to devalue its currency, the ringgit is a victim of a convergence of several factors on both the external and domestic fronts. The big question mark that remains: is the currency weakness a reflection of Malaysia's economic's fundamentals or is it a cyclical and temporary weakness? If you trust the analysts, then Ringgit is expected to continue the downtrend into next year. Factors that drive the Ringgit down Drop in ...