Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Asian markets fall on China rate hike

KUALA LUMPUR: Asian markets, including Bursa Malaysia, fell on Wednesday, Oct 20 after China raised interest rates for the first time since 2007, with Japan's Nikkei share average down over 2%.

China's rate rise was aimed in part at curbing a red-hot property market, prompting the Shanghai property subindex to fall 3.3% at the open, according to Reuters.

The People's Bank of China, the central bank, said it would lift its benchmark one-year lending and deposit rate, effective on Wednesday.

At the regional markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 2.18% to 9,331.86, the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.96% to 2,972.91, Singapore's Straits Times Index fell 0.81% to 3,166.51, Taiwan's Taiex lost 0.04% to 8,043.13 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index opened 1.4% lower at 23,423.82. The South Korean Kospi, however, was up 0.32% to 1,863.32.

On Bursa Malaysia, the FBM KLCI fell 4.85 points to 1,483.80 at 10am as the broader market breadth remained cautious in view of China's interest rate hike as well as the overnight slump at Wall Street.

Losers beat gainers by 306 to 127, while 229 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 322.31 million shares valued at RM201.46 million.

On Bursa Malaysia, BAT was the top loser at mid-morning and fell RM1.08 to RM47.32; Batu Kawan fell 32 sen to RM15.62, Panasonic down 20 sen to RM18.30, Bursa lost 16 sen to RM18.30, Lafarge Malayan Cement down 10 sen to RM7.90 while Petronas Dagangan, IJM Corp and Masterskill fell eight sen each to RM10.90, RM5.35 and RM3.26 respectively.

Meanwhile, RHB Capital lost seven sen to RM7.85 and F&N fell six sen to RM14.34.

Among the gainers, Far East Corp added eight sen to RM6.88, Huat Lai and BLD PLANTATION []s gained seven sen each to RM1.27 and RM4.88, DiGi was up six sen to RM24.52 while Toyo Ink, Kluang and ho Hup added five sen each to RM1.70, RM2.60 and 78 sen respectively.

Karambunai was the most actively traded counter with 56.1 million shares done. The stock added half a sen to 25.5 sen. Other actives included Sinotop, Carotech, Hovid and Jadi.


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