Most Asian stocks were on a downtrend today following a sell-off on Wall Street, a dealer said. At the same time, investors were also assessing trade data from China.
“Chinese imports and exports fell 7.3% and 8.8% year-on-year, respectively, less than the 9% and 9.2% drops forecasted by Reuters’ poll,” he said.
He said all three major Wall Street indices – the Dow Jones, Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 – saw an overnight sell-off due to growing concerns that the US Federal Reserve may hike interest rates in the future.
On the local front, Bank Negara Malaysia’s monetary policy committee has decided to maintain the overnight policy rate (OPR) at 3% today.
In a statement, the central bank said that at the current OPR level, the monetary policy stance remains supportive of the economy and is consistent with the current assessment of inflation and growth prospects.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 0.55 of-a-point to end at 1,460.07 from 1,460.62 at yesterday’s close.
The barometer index opened 0.64 of-a-point easier at 1,459.98 and moved between 1,458.27 and 1,463.3 during the session.
On the broader market, decliners thumped gainers 531 to 386, with 458 counters unchanged, 932 untraded and seven others suspended.
Turnover decreased to 3.21 billion units worth RM2.02 billion against Wednesday’s 4.18 billion units worth RM2.13 billion.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank slipped one sen to RM9.17, Tenaga Nasional declined nine sen to RM9.87, Public Bank was flat at RM4.25, while CIMB rose two sen to RM5.74, and Petronas Chemicals advanced five sen to RM7.17.
Of the actives, Top Glove went up 5.5 sen to 84 sen, Aimflex increased 1.5 sen to 23 sen, Classita eased 0.5 sen to eight sen, and Ekovest fell four sen to 50.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index went down 19.88 points to 10,774.8, the FBMT 100 Index fell 15.18 points to 10,447.1, the FBM Emas Shariah Index trimmed 16.56 points to 10,950.04, the FBM 70 Index declined 68.24 points to 14,237.69 and the FBM ACE Index slipped 41.35 points to 5,188.57.
Sector-wise, the financial services index gave up 20.33 points to 16,472.2, the industrial products and services index was 0.34 of-a-point easier at 173.12, and the energy index ticked down 0.54 of-a-point to 864.49, while the plantation index gained 39.99 points to 6,898.95.
The Main Market’s volume fell to 2.3 billion units worth RM1.82 billion from 3.04 billion units worth RM1.89 billion on Wednesday.
Warrants turnover narrowed to 344.77 million units valued at RM48.86 million against yesterday’s 398.38 million units valued at RM54.07 million.
The ACE Market volume fell to 560.47 million shares worth RM159.50 million from 745.89 million shares worth RM183.28 million previously.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 503.85 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (405.09 million); construction (180.89 million); technology (138.91 million); SPAC (nil); financial services (52.30 million); property (309.36 million); plantation (23.38 million); REITs (11.31 million), closed/fund (36,300); energy (210.22 million); healthcare (341.0 million); telecommunications and media (23.49 million); transportation and logistics (36.26 million); and utilities (65.19 million).