CAUGHT UP IN ASIAN FREE-FALL

Performance followed overnight Wall St selloff, in line with most regional bourses

BURSA Malaysia, just like most of its Asian stock market peers, fell steeply in early trade yesterday, losing as much as 20 points at one point before narrowing the losses later in the day.

Analysts do not expect the local bourse to turn bullish in the near term, perhaps not until the tabling of the 2019 Budget next Friday.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 3.45 points, or 0.2 per cent, to close at 1,686.59, and moved below the 1,690-point level for the day.

“The performance of the local bourse was in tandem with most of our regional peers, following overnight selloffs in the United States market,” said JF Apex Securities.

Analysts said trading floors in Asia were awash with negativity on the back of geopolitical concerns and following weak US economic and earnings data.

These were the latest to hit global equities, which have been pummelled this year by a wave of issues, led by the China-US trade tensions and rising Federal Reserve interest rates.

On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index plunged 608.01 points, or 2.41 per cent, as mixed corporate earnings and weak housing data fuelled anxiety that rising prices would crimp economic growth, Bloomberg reported.

Major Asian bourses, with the exception of the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index that eked out a marginal 0.02 per cent gain, were not spared the carnage.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost more than 820 points, or 3.72 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slid 255.32 points (1.01 per cent), South Korea’s Kospi fell 34.28 points (1.63 per cent) and Singapore’s Straits Times Index dropped 0.63 per cent to close at 3,012.84 points.

Kenanga Research said the FBM KLCI’s outlook was increasingly bearish and was currently trading below the 1,700 psychological support, signalling another possible downtrend.

“With key momentum indicators still in negative territory, support levels are seen at 1,658 and 1,614. Should market sentiment improve, key levels of resistance to look for are at 1,735 and 1,760,” the firm said.