Monday, July 19, 2010

Asian markets fall on US gloom

KUALA LUMPUR: Asian markets, including Bursa Malaysia, fell on Monday, July 19 in line with the weaker key regional markets after stocks on Wall Street skidded last Friday.

The fall on Wall Street was triggered by dismal consumer sentiment data and anemic revenues from GE and two big banks ' Bank of America (BofA) and Citigroup.

BofA and Citigroup shares fell as the banks' results highlighted the sluggishness of the US economic recovery and costs of potential regulation, offsetting better-than-expected quarterly profits on lower credit losses.

The slide in the S&P 500 was a decisive break of an 8% rise over the last two weeks as investors lost hope that strong earnings could overcome doubts about the economic outlook.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 261.41 points, or 2.52%, to 10,097.90. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index slid 31.60 points, or 2.88%, to 1,064.88. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 70.03 points, or 3.11%, to 2,179.05.

At the regional markets Monday morning,'' the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.77% to 2,405.52, Singapore's Straits Times Index down 0.48% to 2,943.51, Taiwan's Taiex Index 0.46% to 7,629.48, the South Korean Kospi 0.42% to 1,731.08 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index opened 1% lower at 20,041.36.

Japan's stock exchange is closed Monday for a national holiday.

At Bursa Malaysia, the FBM KLCI fell 4.76 points to 1,331.89 at 10am, dragged by losses including at Tenaga, IOI Corp, MISC and Maybank.

Losers beat gainers by 211 to 98, while 148 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 184.29 million shares valued at RM234.34 million.

RHB Research Institute Sdn Bhd said Asian markets' sentiment, including at Bursa Malaysia, were expected to suffer from negative knee-jerk reaction due to last Friday's sharp drop in the US markets.

As a result, the research house said it expects fresh profit-taking activities on stocks that had gained sharply late last week.

It said this would drag the FBM KLCI to the short-term support at the 10-day SMA near 1,323 soon.

"However, if the market can withstand the pressure and stay at above the 10-day SMA, buying activities may slowly return if the US markets stabilise in the next few sessions.

"For the medium term, the index is supported by the 40-day SMA near 1,304 and the critical psychological level at 1,300," said RHB Research in a note July 19.

Among the major losers, Tenaga fell six sen to RM8.55, IOI Corp and MISC five sen each to RM5.02 and RM8.68, Maybank and PPB down four sen each to RM7.66 and RM17.36 while RHB Capital shed two sen to RM6.13.

DFZ Capital fell 16 sen to RM3.34, Hexagon 11 sen to 88 sen, Parkson nine sen to RM5.46, IJM Corp eight sen to RM5.04 while Berjaya Land and Supermax lost seven sen each to RM4.30 and RM6.37.

Titan Chemicals was the top gainer and most actively traded stock with 34.2 million shares done.

It jumped 34 sen to RM2.19 after South Korea's Honam Petrochemical Corp launched a takeover of Titan, to acquire the remaining 72.32% stake or 1.249 billion shares for RM2.93 billion or RM2.35 a share.

Other gainers included Hua Yang that added 15 sen to RM1.05, KFCH up 12 sen RM11.22, LPI Capital and F&N 10 sen each to RM17.70 and RM14.20, Unisem nine sen to RM3.22 while Measat added eight sen to RM3.41.


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