FBM KLCI under selling pressure

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed in the red on Tuesday as investors decided to take some money off the table, bucking the performance of its regional peers.

At 5pm, the FBM KLCI tumbled 14.46 points, or 0.99% to 1,445.92 with 26 of the KLCI-component stocks closing lower.

The broader market sagged, with decliners overtaking advancers 479 to 381 while 388 counters were unchanged.

Activities were encouraging with almost three billion shares worth RM1.56bil changed hands.

Among the losers on Bursa Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur Kepong tumbled 70 sen to RM20.98, Hextar Technologies eased 68 sen to RM12.70, Nestle fell 50 sen to RM132.50 and F&N lost 44 sen to RM20.10.

Malaysian Pacific Industries surged 72 sen to RM24.72, Batu Kawan added 36 sen to RM21.38, Sam engineering gained 17 sen to RM5.47 and Khind rose 16 sen to RM3.18.

Elsewhere in the region, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average closed up 0.33%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 5.23%, South Korea’s Kospi closed up 1.81%, China’s CSI index advanced 3.58% and Singapore’s Straits Times Index added 1.22%.

SPI Asset Management managing partner Stephen Innes said Asian stocks advanced as technology shares led a rebound in China's equity market ahead of a much-anticipated policy decision by the US Federal Reserve.

MSCI Asia Pacific Index jumped as much as 1.4%, set for its biggest gain in almost a week, as dip buyers helped lift China's gauges from multi-year lows.

“China reopening chatter is quite broad and highly encouraging, although looking at price action, traders are discounting a full snap reopening. The consensus among the street has been that any change before year-end would become apparent in the first couple of weeks following the party congress.

“Ahead of speculation today, the overwhelming consensus for a reopening was Q2 2023 (unclear whether that has moved materially). But if we get a political nod to ease out of Covid -zero in Q1 2023, that would be sufficiently positive to drive a substantial global "risk- on" move,” he said.