KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia was put off by the announcement of the new US trade tariffs but avoided larger losses as other Asian markets shrugged off the negative news.
The Shanghai Composite Index pulled up in the afternoon session to put in a 1.8% lift to 2,699.95 while the blue-chip CSI 300 jumped 2% to 3,269.43.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.6% to 27,084.66, South Korea's Kospi rose 0.26% to 2,308.98 and Japan's Nikkei advanced 1.4% to 23,420.54 despite the impending tariffs.
Analysts say the widely expected tariffs could have already been priced into these markets and investors were reacting positively to the low 10% rate as opposed to the 25% that was said to be under consideration.
The FBM KLCI was 10.82 points lower at market close at 1,792.94. Total volume was 1.79 billion shares worth RM1.98bil. There were 611 decliners, 272 gainers and 317 counters unchanged.
IHH Healthcare led the decline with a 23 sen slide to RM5.06.
Bank stocks rounded out the top three decliners, with CIMB losing 19 sen to RM6.04 and Maybank slipping 16 sen to RM9.74.
On the other end of the spectrum, Petronas Gas rose 26 sen to RM19, MISC added eight sen to RM5.97 and Digi gained three sen to RM4.81.
On the broader market, Dutch Lady
lost RM1 to RM64.50, BAT slid 34 sen to RM33.40 and Padini dropped 31 sen to RM5.70.
Mi Equipment continued its rise for the third straight session with a 22 sen gain to RM3.15. Versatile added 19 sen to 60 sen and SPB climbed 16 sen to RM4.18.
Meanwhile, crude oil prices were on the slide as demand looked set to suffer from the escalating trade war with the US and China being the biggest consumers of the commodity.
WTI crude fell 86 cents to US$69.77 a barrel while Brent crude dropped 98 cents to US$79.03 a barrel.
The ringgit held firm against the US dolla at 4.1425. It, however, fell 0.5% against the pound sterling at 5.4463 and 0.4% against the Singapore dollar at 3.0258.
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