Foreign funds punish KLCI, key Asian markets skid

KUALA LUMPUR:  Foreign funds battered Malaysia's stock market on Wednesday sending the FBM KLCI down as much as 3.47% in the worst one-day loss in recent years, when compared with the regional bourses following the political turmoil in Italy.

At 3.48pm, the KLCI was down 55.41 points or 3.12% to 1,720.43. It hit a low of 1,714 earlier -- down 61 points -- when European bourses opened for trading.

Turnover was 2.92 billion shares valued at RM3.17bil. Losers hammered gainers 1,057 to 100 and 235 counters unchanged.

This was the longest streak in recent years that Bursa Malaysia has been hammered by foreign funds, starting on May 14 when the markets reopened after the Pakatan Harapan coalition swept to power on May 9.

Since then, the coalition government had already unveiled steps to review mega construction projects, scrapped the GST effective on June 1 and also announced the government debt of RM1 trillion. It also unveiled the steps to tackle the government's fiscal deficit while trying to control the massive fallout from the debt-ridden 1MDB.

The fresh negative news came from Italy after political turmoil in Italy sparked concerns over the stability of the euro zone, sending key Asian markets lower.

Reuters reported Japan's Nikkei share average tumbled to six-week lows on Wednesday after political turmoil in Italy sparked concerns over the stability of the euro zone, hitting financial and exporter shares in particular.  China's Shanghai Comnposite Index tumbled 2.53%.

Gamuda hit limit-down earlier to RM3, down RM1.13 from the previous close of RM4.13 as the government scrapped mega construction projects including the MRT3, High Speed Rail from KL to Singapore and the Eastern Corridor Rail Link. However, the construction stock managed to come off the intra-day low, falling 94 sen to RM3.19.

In the latest development on Wednesday, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the government has decided to scrap the MRT 3 rail transit project for now.

Among the KLCI stocks, Public Bank skidded 76 sen to RM24.14, Tenaga, 60 sen to RM14.18 and MISC 57 sen to RM5.22. YTL lost 9.5 sen to 92.5 sen with 74.23 million shares done.

Muda lost 78 sen to RM2.04, Aeon Credit 76 sen to RM14.34 and Hengyuan 62 sen to RM6.14.