Monday, October 3, 2011

Asian markets slump on first trading day of 4Q, KLCI down 1.8%

KUALA LUMPUR: Global markets mostly slumped in early trade on Monday, Oct 3, the first trading day of the final quarter of 2011, as worries that a deepening euro zone debt crisis could stutter growth sent investors scurrying towards less riskier assets.

Perhaps to be excluded from the slump were the China markets, given the week-long holiday in that country.

The FBM KLCI fell more than 1.8% or 25.37 points to 1,361.76.

Gainers thumped losers by 317 to 68, while 123 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 102.14 million shares valued at RM137.19 million.

At the regional markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slumped 3.37% to 16,999.63, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.95% to 8,530.92, Taiwan's Taiex lost 2.09% to 7,074.56 and Singapore's Straits Times Index was down 1.51% to 2,634.86.

China and South Korea's markets were closed for national holidays respectively.

BIMB Securities Research in a note Oct 3 said that amid a chaotic period being experienced at the moment, traders preferred to concentrate on the negatives than otherwise.

It said that at the moment, it seemed like traders were hopping between the Atlantic Ocean for negative news, adding this was to continue until a certain degree of certainty becomes apparent.

'Until then, we have to endure the prevailing market volatility,' it said.

It said that last Friday saw another sell down on Wall Street on worries that the crisis in Europe may spillover to the banking sector in the US, adding that with the collapse of Lehman Brother still fresh in memory, many traders now perhaps were having a feeling of d''j''-vu.

For Asia, it was another mixed session attributed to a weak showing in Europe, it said.

'On the local front, market undercurrent remains volatile with the FBM KLCI closed flat having briefly breached the 1,400 level.

'Taking cue from the more than 200 point fall at the Dow Jones Industrial Average, we expect further weakness on the local bourse with the 1,380 as the immediate support level,' it said.

On Bursa Malaysia, KLK was the top loser and fell 82 sen to RM20.28; HLFG lost 56 sen to RM10.34, Sime 39 sen to RM8.05, Hong Leong Bank 38 sen to RM9.80, PPB 32 sen to RM16.30, Media Prima, APM Automotive and Petronas Gas down 20 sen each to RM2, RM4.30 and RM12.78, while Parkson and Nestle shed 18 sen each to RM5.50 and RM47.80.

OSK Holdings continued to be actively traded since it said last week that it was planning to start merger talks with RHB Capital. The stock rose three sen to RM1.59 with 5.1 million shares done.

Other actives included GPRO, Focus, PLUS, DVM, Timecom, SAAG, Perdana and Dialog.

Gainers at mid-morning included Atis, Petronas Dagangan, Genting PLANTATION []s, Taliworks, Supermax, Scientex, Khind and Bumi Armada.

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