KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips fell in early Monday trade, setting a cautious start for June as escalating trade war fears across the globe saw investors taking some money off the table.
At 9.22am, the FBM KLCI was down 2.63 points or 0.16% to 1,648.13. Turnover was 244.23 million shares valued at RM97.16mil. There were 88 gainers, 271 losers and 192 counters unchanged.
Reuters reported US stock futures, Asian share markets and oil prices slipped to multi-month lows on mounting worries growing US-China tensions and Washington's new tariff threats against Mexico could tip the global economy into a recession.
The E-mini futures for S&P500 dropped 0.5% in early Asian trade to 2,738, near their March low of 2,722 while Japan's Nikkei skidded 1.1% to a four-month low.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was little changed in early trade, but held barely above last week's four-month low.
Meanwhile, Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA said with last week’s tariff escalation game of tag spreading across the globe, analysts are growing more concerned “we could see a global recession by the middle of next year if the US impose additional tariffs on China and Mexico”.
He said the threats to global growth seem to be here to stay as markets appear convinced the new normal will be constant trade negotiations around d the world.
“Instead of focusing on one trade deal at a time, the US has overplayed its dominant hand and appears vulnerable to only finalising temporary solutions. The Chinese have put the ball in US hands and need to offer an olive branch before things get even uglier,” Moya said.
At Bursa, BAT fell 38 sen to RM29.62, Hume Industries-LA 17 sen to RM1.33, DKSH 15c to RM2.43, Petron 11 sen to RM6.46 and Hengyuan 10 sen to RM5.30.
Bursa fell 11 sen to RM6.39, Digi 10 sen to RM4.87 and Public Bank eight sen to RM23.52.
Bumi Armada
shed 0.5 sen to 19.5 sen, Hibiscus five sen to 99 sen while Sapura Energy was flat at 29.5 sen.
Petronas Gas added 14 sen to RM17.84 with 400 shares done and Petronas Dagangan added 12 sen to RM25.88.
SAM Engineering gained 13 sen to RM8.03 and MFCB 10 sen to RM3.55 while HL Bank and QL Resources edged up four sen each to RM19.04 and RM6.88.
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