KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia and key regional markets fell early Friday as investor sentiment was affected by the overnight tumble on Wall Street.
The FBM KLCI plunged 24.40 points, or 1.66% to 1,448.37 at 9.14am, with 28 out of the 30 constituent counters falling into the red.
The regional index, MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.62%.
Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) dropped 2.42%, or 741.46 points, to 29,927.07, while the S&P 500 slipped 3.25% to 3,666.77.
The Nasdaq Composite slid 4.08% to 10,646.10 and touched its lowest level since September 2020.
TA Securities said the recent highly volatile trading conditions should persist, given prevailing jittery sentiment as investors anticipate more monetary tightening and consider the adverse impact from the US Federal Reserve’s latest 75-basis point interest rate hike on earnings, economic growth and recession expectations.
“Crucial index support stays at 1,452, Tuesday’s low matching the 50% Fibonacci Retracement (FR) of the 1,207 low of March 2020 to the Dec 2020 peak of 1,695, with next key support below at 1,394, the 38.2% FR level.
“Immediate resistance will be the 1,500 psychological level, with 1,520, 1,540 and the previous week’s high of 1,570 as tougher upside hurdles,” the research house said.
Mercury Securities expects Malaysian stocks to decline following steep losses on Wall Street overnight as investors fear that the Fed rate hikes could lead to a recession in the US economy.
Among the losers on Bursa Malaysia, Nestle tumbled RM5.90 to RM134.10, Petronas Dagangan shed 84 sen to RM20.30, Kuala Lumpur Kepong fell 56 sen to RM23.48 and Hong Leong Financial Group lost 40 sen to RM18.70.
ABM Fujiya
added 4.5 sen to 43.5 sen, Paramount Corp gained two sen to 67.5 sen, Adventa gained two sen to 67 sen and AWC added 1.5 sen to 44 sen.
Among the actives, Sapura Energy declined 0.5 sen to 4.5 sen, Bintai fell one sen to nine sen, Top Glove eased 0.5 sen to 97 sen and Hibiscus lost 10 sen to RM1.07.
