KUALA LUMPUR: Asian markets retreated on Thursday, March 17 as Japan's nuclear crisis deepened and Wall Street tanked overnight on the back of weak new housing starts.
Operators of a quake-crippled nuclear plant in Japan again deployed military helicopters on Thursday in a bid to douse overheating reactors, as US officials warned of the rising risk of a catastrophic radiation leak from spent fuel rods, according to Reuters.
Japan's Nikkei 225 fell more than 4% at one point in early trade, dragging most key regional markets with it as investors spooked by the uncertainties of the Japan's quake and nuclear crisis on the global economy started avoiding risky assets.
The FBM KLCI fell 0.34% or 5.11 points to 1,487.33 at mid-morning.
Market breadth was weaker with 371 losers against 67 gainers, while 133 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 169.12 million shares valued at RM200.77 million.
At the regional markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 2.09% to 8,903.86, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 2.05% to 22,235.53, the Shanghai Composite Index was down 1.07% to 2,899.42, South Korea's Kospi fell 1.17% to 1,935.15, Taiwan's Taiex down 0.98% to 8,243.37 while Singapore's Straits Times Index lost 1.06% to 2,939.49.
BIMB Securities Research in a note March 17 said the situation at the Japan nuclear plant was at best uncertain and its emergency plan so far looked trembling, with investors fearing that this may lead to one of the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.
'Elsewhere, US reported a weak new home CONSTRUCTION [] figure in February, hammered by weak demand.
'Given the breadth of the selling of the selling momentum on Wall Street, we foresee the selling pressure in the local and regional markets to be inevitable today,' it said.
Meanwhile, MIDF Research chief economist Anthony Dass said he believed it was premature to sum-up that'' the worst from the Sendai disaster'' would actually come to pass despite perception that the disaster was less consequential in economic'' terms than Kobe quake due to where it occurred, a lesser of a manufacturing hub.
He said the setback would come from the electrical grid, from which the country may have lost about 7% of its generating capacity.
Nonetheless, he said the setback was temporary and ruled out neither an overly pessimistic outlook nor a 'V' recovery for Japan.
'We expect the economy to rebound in 2HCY2011 benefitting from the reconstruction work.
'We reiterate Malaysia's 5.3% real GDP outlook for CY2011 as we expect the blip to be temporary. The domestic economy is poised to benefit from exports when reconstruction work commences and will augur well for our timber sector in particular,' he said.
On Bursa Malaysia, United PLANTATION []s was the top loser at mid-morning and fell 90 sen to RM16.60; GAB lost 25 sen to RM9.54, LPI Capital 20 sen to RM13.10, IJM Land 18 sen to RM2.65, MSC 15 sen to RM3.90, KESM 11 sen to RM2.15, CIMB 10 sen to RM7.90 while RHB Capital and IJM Plantations fell nine sen each to RM7.91 and RM2.83.
Gainers included MTD Capital, Nestle, PPB, Ireka, Subur, KLK and TexChem.
Meanwhile, timber-related Ta Ann and Jaya Tiasa advanced on hopes of higher demand for their products as a result of the Japan earthquake. Ta Ann added 16 sen to RM5.14 while Jaya Tiasa rose nine sen to RM5.19.
IRCB was the most actively traded counter with 10.42 million shares. The stock shed half a sen to 27.5 sen.
''
Operators of a quake-crippled nuclear plant in Japan again deployed military helicopters on Thursday in a bid to douse overheating reactors, as US officials warned of the rising risk of a catastrophic radiation leak from spent fuel rods, according to Reuters.
Japan's Nikkei 225 fell more than 4% at one point in early trade, dragging most key regional markets with it as investors spooked by the uncertainties of the Japan's quake and nuclear crisis on the global economy started avoiding risky assets.
The FBM KLCI fell 0.34% or 5.11 points to 1,487.33 at mid-morning.
Market breadth was weaker with 371 losers against 67 gainers, while 133 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 169.12 million shares valued at RM200.77 million.
At the regional markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 2.09% to 8,903.86, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 2.05% to 22,235.53, the Shanghai Composite Index was down 1.07% to 2,899.42, South Korea's Kospi fell 1.17% to 1,935.15, Taiwan's Taiex down 0.98% to 8,243.37 while Singapore's Straits Times Index lost 1.06% to 2,939.49.
BIMB Securities Research in a note March 17 said the situation at the Japan nuclear plant was at best uncertain and its emergency plan so far looked trembling, with investors fearing that this may lead to one of the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.
'Elsewhere, US reported a weak new home CONSTRUCTION [] figure in February, hammered by weak demand.
'Given the breadth of the selling of the selling momentum on Wall Street, we foresee the selling pressure in the local and regional markets to be inevitable today,' it said.
Meanwhile, MIDF Research chief economist Anthony Dass said he believed it was premature to sum-up that'' the worst from the Sendai disaster'' would actually come to pass despite perception that the disaster was less consequential in economic'' terms than Kobe quake due to where it occurred, a lesser of a manufacturing hub.
He said the setback would come from the electrical grid, from which the country may have lost about 7% of its generating capacity.
Nonetheless, he said the setback was temporary and ruled out neither an overly pessimistic outlook nor a 'V' recovery for Japan.
'We expect the economy to rebound in 2HCY2011 benefitting from the reconstruction work.
'We reiterate Malaysia's 5.3% real GDP outlook for CY2011 as we expect the blip to be temporary. The domestic economy is poised to benefit from exports when reconstruction work commences and will augur well for our timber sector in particular,' he said.
On Bursa Malaysia, United PLANTATION []s was the top loser at mid-morning and fell 90 sen to RM16.60; GAB lost 25 sen to RM9.54, LPI Capital 20 sen to RM13.10, IJM Land 18 sen to RM2.65, MSC 15 sen to RM3.90, KESM 11 sen to RM2.15, CIMB 10 sen to RM7.90 while RHB Capital and IJM Plantations fell nine sen each to RM7.91 and RM2.83.
Gainers included MTD Capital, Nestle, PPB, Ireka, Subur, KLK and TexChem.
Meanwhile, timber-related Ta Ann and Jaya Tiasa advanced on hopes of higher demand for their products as a result of the Japan earthquake. Ta Ann added 16 sen to RM5.14 while Jaya Tiasa rose nine sen to RM5.19.
IRCB was the most actively traded counter with 10.42 million shares. The stock shed half a sen to 27.5 sen.
''
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