Monday, August 8, 2011

US credit rating downgrade drags Asian markets

KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI remained deeply in the red at mid-morning on Monday, Aug 8 in line with key regional markets that fell sharply after the US was stripped of its top-tier AAA credit rating on Friday.

Standard & Poor's cut the long-term US credit rating by one notch to AA-plus on Friday on concerns about the government's budget deficit and rising debt burden.

The FBM KLCI fell 17.87 points to 1,506.56 at 10am.

Market breadth remained negative with 775 losers and 33 gainers, while 86 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 311.81 million shares valued at RM512.69 million.

At the regional markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 2.44% to 20,435.16, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.31% to 9,178.03, South Korea's Kospi down 1.41% to 1,916.39, the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.73% to 2,607.19, Taiwan's Taiex shed 0.96% to 7,777.46 and Singapore's Straits Times Index dipped 2.44% to 2,921.80.

OSK Research director Chris Eng in a strategy report Aug 8 said the research house was downgrading the Malaysian market to Neutral with a reduced year-end target of 1,557 points.

With confidence already shaken by the spread of the European debt crisis to Italy, the downgrade of the US credit rating by S&P to AA+ could rattle markets enough so that the sell-off continues and makes further damage to the technical landscape, he said.

'While there is still hope for a recovery of confidence if a massive coordinated global response emerges, we believe that markets may find it difficult to reclaim their recent highs anytime soon.

'As such, we downgrade our KLCI 2012 fair value from 1,710 points to 1,466 points based on a change in the applied PER from 15.5 times to 13 times,' he said.

Among the losers on Bursa Malaysia, Dutch Lady lost 60 sen to RM18.10, Tasek 49 sen to RM8.01, LPI Capital 44 sen to RM13.06, Batu Kawan, HLFG and F&N 40 sen each to RM15.80, RM12.30 and RM18.50 respectively, Cycle & Carriage and IJM Corp 29 sen each to RM3.60 and RM5.83, while NPC and Genting fell 28 sen each to RM2 and RM10.18.

Among gainers, BAT and MISC added 18 sen each to RM45.60 and RM7.18, Nestle 12 sen to RM47.24, Latitude 11.5 sen to 95 sen, Petronas Gas 10 sen to RM13.22 and PPB four sen to RM17.08.

The actives at mid-morning included Karambunai, Axiata, Petronas Chemicals, Iris, Bumi Armada, SAAG, Catcha Media and CIMB.

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