KLCI, Asian markets retreat amid disquiet in Washington

KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI slid sharply in early Monday trade ahead of the Christmas holiday

Asian markets are set for a negative trading day on reports that US President Donald Trump was looking to remove US Federal Reserve governor Jerome Powell while an impasse over funding has led to a partial shutdown in the US government.

In early trade, Japan's Nikkei was closed for a holiday while South Korea's Kospi was down 0.5%.

At 9.08am, the FBM KLCI was 7.53 points lower at 1,662.75. Turnover was 78.17 million shares traded valued at RM27.3mil. There were 127 decliners versus 72 gainers and 108 counters unchanged.

In its Monday pre-market open report, Kenanga research said the overall technical outlook on the FBM KLCI remains bearish as the index remains trading below all key simple moving averages. 

"From here, the index is likely to trend nearer to its next support at 1,615 (S1) and 1,600 (S2).

"Any positive development in macro environment may see the index test its resistances at 1,700 (R1) and 1,720 (R2)."

Active counters in early trade included MyEG, rising 1.5 sen to 84 sen, Nova MSC sliding 0.5 sen to 10 sen and FGV gaining one sen to 75.5 sen.

Meanwhile, some KLCI counters seeing early price movement include Petronas Gas rising 26 sen to RM19.30, Hong Leong Bank, gaining 16 sen to RM20.26 and KL Kepong advancing four sen to RM24.24.

Tenaga was on the backfoot, losing 24 sen to RM13.24, Public Bank shed 12 sen to RM24.56 and Genting shed eight sen to RM6.19.

Stocks seeing some investor interest include DKSH, which had announced its was acquiring the entire equity interest in Auric Pacific for RM480.9mil. The stock climbed nine sen to RM2.33.

In commodities, oil prices were near their lowest since the third quarter of 2017, having shed over 11% last week, Reuters reported. US crude was last unchanged at US$45.59 a barrel, while Brent dipped 19 cents to US$53.63.