Bursa weakens as over 600 stocks in the red

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia succumbed to selling pressure on Thursday following the hawkish minutes from the US Federal Reserve.

At 5pm, the FBM KLCI ended down 14.59 points, or 0.94% to 1,533.36 after rising to an intraday high of 1,546.50.

Market breadth turned negative as losers overpowered the gainers on a ratio of 618-to-320 stocks. Traded volumes stood at 2.86 billion shares worth RM1.9bil.

Dealers said the minutes from the US Federal Reserve's December meeting pointed to a faster-than-expected rise in interest rates, triggering selling in equities markets.

Stock market data showed foreign funds and local institutions were net buyers at RM19mil and RM2mil respectively on Wednesday. Retailers were net sellers at RM21mil.

Among the losers on Bursa Malaysia, Aeon Credit jumped 34 sen to RM14.86, QL rose 26 sen to RM5.05 and Texchem gained 15 sen to RM1.30.

Genetec, MPI and PPB are among the top losers on Bursa Malaysia.

The KLCI-component stocks were overwhelmingly negative, with 26 losers and two gainers while two closed unchanged.

Maybank, Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals fell five sen each to RM8.30, RM4.12 and RM8.73 respectively.

Mr DIY added five sen to RM3.70 and MISC gained one sen to RM6.98.

Meanwhile, oil fell from one-month high following US fuel inventory surge.

US light crude oil fell 34 cents to US$77.51 a barrel and Brent lost 38 cents to US$80.42 per barrel.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell nearly 1.5% in afternoon trade, Reuters reported.

Elsewhere in the region, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average fell 2.88%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.7%, South Korea’s Kospi closed down 1.13% and Singapore’s Straits Times Index added 0.62%.