Investors cash in on stocks, ringgit unmoved ahead of FOMC results

KUALA LUMPUR: Profit-taking on Bursa Malaysia continued for a second straight day as investors fled to the sidelines ahead of the US Federal Reserve announcement later today.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI dropped 6.42 points to 1,681.26. Trading volume was 1.49 billion shares valued at RM801.94mil. There were 408 gainers versus 267 decliners and 349 counters unchanged.

The index failed to hold on to the 50-day simple moving average on Tuesday after Monday's tentative breach. Today's morning performance indicated a continuation of the downtrend with the FBM KLCI struggling to hold above the 1,680-point mark. 

Tenaga Nasional led the decline with a 20 sen to fall to RM13 followed by Petronas Chemicals sliding nine sen to RM9.16 and CIMB dropping seven sen to RM5.40.

Most active counters were Sapura Energy rising 0.5 sen to 35 sen, JAG gaining 0.5 sen to 5.5 sen and Dayang unchanged at RM1.38.

The fall on the local market mimicked movements in key Asian markets. The Shanghai Composite Index fell 1%, the CSI300 dropped 0.9%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng slid 0.5% and SOuth Korea's Kospi lost 1%. 

Japan's Nikkei was marginally higher, having returned from the red in the closing minutes of the morning session.

On the forex market, the ringgit held flat against the US dollar at 4.0760, pending the Fed decision on policy rates. It was also little changed against the pound sterling at 5.4037 and 0.1% higher against the Singapore dollar at 3.0136.

In commodities, crude oil prices continued to face headwinds in the form of slowing demand. US crude slid 15 cents to US$58.88 a barrel and Brent crude shed seven cents to US$67.54 a barrel.