Asian markets stumble while KLCI slides 10 points

KUALA LUMPUR: Key Asian markets stumbled in early Wednesday trade, with the FBM KLCI sliding more than 10 points after the overnight fall on Wall Street and weak European markets.

At 9.24am, the FBM KLCI was down 10.43 points or 0.57% to 1,816.99. Turnover was 269.60 million shares valued at RM103.03mil. There were 144 gainers, 155 losers and 179 counters unchanged.

JF Apex Research said following the bearish performance in the US and Europe, it expected the KLCI to consolidate and hover above the 200-day moving average of 1,820.

Reuters reported Asian stocks stumbled in line with weak US and European markets as equities investors were spooked by a vicious selloff in sovereign bonds globally. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was off 0.4% in early trade, led by a 1.2% decline in Australia.

At Bursa Malaysia, Public Bank, Hong Leong Bank and Maybank were among the top  losers. Public Bank fell 16 sen to RM19.30, Hong Leong  Bank 12 sen to RM14.04 and Maybank shed 11 sen to RM9.14.

PBB Group fell the most, down 34 sen to RM15.32. Other decliners were Sunway and Petronas Chemicals which shed 10 sen each to RM3.52 and RM5.90 while Maxis was down seven sen to RM6.98.

However, Uli Corp, Time dot Com and F&N bucked the weaker market. Uli rose  13 sen to RM2.99, Time Com added 10 sen to RM6.16  and F&N six sen to RM18.60.

UMW rose six sen to RM10.90 and  Homeritz five sen to RM1.21.