KUALA LUMPUR: Key Asian markets fell in early Monday trade with the FBM KLCI down more than 18 points on worries about an interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve.
At 9.25am, the KLCI was down 18.38 points or 1.17% to 1,570.78. Turnover was 225.03 million shares valued at RM114.49mil. There were 98 gainers, 238 losers and 135 counters unchanged.
BIMB Securities Research said foreign funds continued to sell down their stakes in Malaysian equities in the week ended Sept 4 with net selling at -RM631.5mil while they were also net sellers at -RM209.2mil last Friday itself.
“We expect the local market to remain volatile with slight bias to down trend due to continuous selling by foreign investors and dampened global sentiment with the index hovering circa 1,580 to 1,590,” it said.
Reuters said investors were taking early cues from Wall Street's slide after the August jobs report failed to give a clear view on the Federal Reserve's interest rate hike, while participants also nervously awaited the restart of Chinese financial markets following the long weekend.
Japan's Nikkei lost 0.7% while South Korea's Kospi and Australian stocks both shed 0.1%. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.2%.
At Bursa Malaysia, Petronas Dagangan fell 54 sen to RM20.92 and Petronas Gas lost 46 sen rM20.86.
Plantations were under pressure also, with Genting Plantations and KLKepong down 36 sen each to RM9.60 and RM20.56 while Far East lost 30 sen to RM7.20 and heavyweight Sime Darby was down 22 sen to RM7.33. However, PPB Group rose 10 sen to RM15.32.
HLFG lost 30 sen to RM13.66 and Hong Leong Bank was down 24 sen to RM13.
Puncak Niaga rose 17 sen to RM2.69, Puncak-WB added 14 sen to RM1.75 and KPS gained 10 sen to RM1.28.
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