Bursa Remains In Negative Territory At Midday

Bursa Malaysia remained in the negative territory at midday in tandem with regional peers, as investors went into risk-off mode following the selldown on Wall Street, an analyst said. 

At 12.30 pm, the FBM KLCI contracted by 12.50 points to 1,475.34 from Tuesday’s close of 1,487.84, according to Bernama.

On the broader market, decliners beat advancers 632 to 168, while 292 counters were unchanged, 1,259 untraded, and 13 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.46 billion units worth RM773.61 million.  

ActivTrades trader Anderson Alves said Asian equities were on the back foot as Wall Street was triggered by the United States (US) Consumer Price Index, which rose to 6.3 percent in August 2022 from 5.9 percent in July.

He said traders are now pricing in a more aggressive rate cycle from the US Federal Reserve, with an 80 percent chance of a 75 basis points (bps) hike, while a growing number are expecting a 100 bps hike at next week’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting. 

Alves said the terminal rate could be higher than the 3.75 percent markets have been pricing, with probabilities now shifting towards 4.0-4.5 percent next year. 

Back home, Bursa heavyweights Maybank fell two sen to RM8.90, Public Bank eased one sen to RM4.51 and CIMB shrank six sen to RM5.39, while Petronas Chemicals added two sen to RM8.73 and IHH Healthcare improved three sen to RM6.23.

Of the actives, Velesto Energy, SNS Network Technology, and Aimflex were down by half-a-sen each to 11 sen, 28.5 sen, and 15 sen, respectively, SFP Tech Holdings trimmed 12 sen to RM1.52, while Metronic Global was flat at three sen. 

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index declined 94.27 points to 10,503.99, the FBMT 100 Index slid 90.80 points to 10,249.42, the FBM Emas Shariah Index weakened 120.12 points to 10,600.36, the FBM 70 went down 128.33 points to 12,686.10 and the FBM ACE slipped 89.32 points to 4,811.40.

Sector-wise, the Energy Index shed 7.48 points to 720.19, the Plantation Index dropped 58.49 points to 6,940.41, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 1.24 points to 182.21 and the Financial Services Index gave up 88.57 points to 16,578.42.

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