Market Commentary and Intraday News

More Pain Predicted For Malaysia Shares

281 days ago

(RTTNews) - The Malaysia stock market headed south again on Monday, one session after it had ended the two-day slide in which it had fallen more than 35 points or 2.2 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index closed just above the 1,620-point plateau, and now analysts are forecasting further damage at the opening of trade on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests consolidation ahead of the Federal Reserve's upcoming monetary policy meeting. The Fed is due to announce its latest decision on monetary policy on Thursday followed by a news conference by Chairman Ben Bernanke - and there remains considerable uncertainty about whether the Fed will announce another round of quantitative easing. The European and U.S. markets ended lower and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The KLCI finished slightly lower on Monday following mild weakness from the financial shares, industrial issues and plantation stocks.

For the day, the index fell 3.51 points or 0.22 percent to finish at 1,621.04 after trading between 1,619.09 and 1,629.19. Volume was 876.44 million shares worth 1.44 billion ringgit. There were 520 decliners and 220 gainers, with 297 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the decliners, CIMB Group shed 1.33 percent, while IOI Corporation lost 0.99 percent, Petronas Chemicals dropped 3.24 percent, RHB Capital fell 2.24 percent and Tenaga Nasional retreated 0.74 percent.

Moving higher, Maybank jumped 1.55 percent, while Maxis added 0.44 percent and Axiata collected 0.50 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as stocks moved mostly lower on Monday, after showing a lack of direction early in the session. The pullback came as some traders cashed in on the recent strength in the markets ahead of the Fed's two-day monetary policy meeting.

The Fed is due to announce its latest decision on monetary policy Thursday afternoon followed by a news conference by Chairman Ben Bernanke. Uncertainty about whether the Fed will announce another round of quantitative easing helped to drag stocks lower, although selling pressure remained relatively subdued.

Some negative sentiment was also generated by disappointing trade data from China, with a report showing an unexpected year-over-year drop in imports in the month of August.

Ahead of the announcement from the Fed, traders are likely to keep a close eye on Europe, as Germany's Constitutional Court is expected to rule on a request for a temporary injunction against Europe's permanent bailout fund.

Developments in Greece are also likely to remain in focus, with Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras reportedly having trouble getting the country's lenders to sign off on his government's proposed budget cuts.

Among individual stocks, shares of Titan Machinery (TITN) fell sharply after the farm equipment retailer reported weaker than expected second quarter earnings and cut its full-year guidance. Titan tumbled by 23.5 percent on the day.

Apparel retailer Michael Kors (KORS) also posted a notable loss after filing a registration statement with the SEC related to a proposed public offering of 20 million ordinary shares by certain shareholders.

The major U.S. averages were all down on Monday as the Dow fell 52.35 points or 0.4 percent to finish at 13,254.29, while the NASDAQ dropped 32.40 points or 1 percent to end at 3,104.02 and the S&P 500 slid 8.84 points or 0.6 percent to close at 1,429.08.

In economic news, Malaysia's industrial output added 1.4 percent on year in July, the Department of Statistics said on Monday. Economists had forecast output to grow at a slower pace of 3 percent than June's 3.7 percent. On a monthly basis, industrial output fell a seasonally adjusted 4.7 percent in July, as all sectors saw decline in production, the agency said.

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