KLCI gives up half of Friday’s gains, Asean markets skid

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia joined Asian markets to close sharply in the red on Monday as investors were gripped in fear over the Covid-19 coronavirus as more countries decided to impose lockdowns.

At 5pm, the FBM KLCI was down 43.4 points or 3.33% to 1,259.88. This meant the KLCI gave up half of the over 80 points gained last Friday. Turnover was 2.80 billion shares valued at RM2.32bil. There were 161 gainers, 771 losers and 218 counters unchanged.

Earlier on Monday, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the National Security Council will meet before the movement control order (MCO) ends to decide if the two weeks enforcement period is sufficient, or need to be extended.

He said the authorities need to gauge the situation throughout the MCO period, before a decision was made.

Reuters reported Southeast Asian stock markets witnessed heavy selling as the economic impact from lockdowns and travel curbs, meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, fuelled fears of a likely recession.

Singapore equities lost 7.4%, their worst session in more than 11 years, after the city-state banned short-term visitors from entering its borders.

The Thai index ended 9.1% lower in a low-volume trading session after triggering a circuit breaker that halted trading for 30 minutes. Indonesian stocks fell 4.9% after hitting circuit breakers five times in eight sessions, according to the wire report.

At Bursa, consumer stocks were again among the top losers led by F&N which fell RM2 to Rm28, Carlsberg RM1.28 to RM19.72, Nestle 90 sen to RM134.10 and Dutch Lady 70 sen to RM37.30.

Panasonic lost RM1.06 to RM23.48, Petronas Dagangan 76 sen to RM19.24, Westports 73 en to RM3.19, Aeon Credit 72 sen to RM7.86.

Genting Plantations slumped 66 sen to RM8.80, LPI 64 sen to RM10.18 and GentingM 14 sen to RM1.83.

AirAsia lost seven sen to 61 sen with 72.91 million shares traded as it would impacted by the travel curbs and lockdowns.

Down in active trade were Ekovest, Hibiscus Petroleum, JAKS, MyEG and Bumi Armada.

Bucking the downward trend was Bintulu Port, up 24 sen to RM3.51, Hong Leong Bank 20 sen to RM12.70 and MB World 19 sen to RM1.34.