KUALA LUMPUR: The growing anxiety over Trump's escalating trade war spilled over into Malaysia's stock market, as a 104% cumulative tariff on Chinese imports into the US is set to come into effect today.
As at 9.18am, the FBM KLCI was down 21.26 points to 1,422.3.
Overnight, the US erased all its earlier gains and brought the S&P 500 to the edge of bear territory as pessimism over tariff developments outweighed investor hope that negotiations between the US and its trading partners would yield progress towards de-escalation.
TA Securities said choppy trade on the Malaysian market is likely to prevail as trade negotiations commence, while investors also price in possible disruptions to the global supply chain and Malaysia's export sectors.
"Immediate support is retained at the 1,400 psychological level, followed by the June 2023 low of 1,369.
"Meanwhile, immediate resistance remains at 1,490, which represents the 38.2%FR of the rally from the 1,369 low (June 2023) to the 1,684 peak (August 2024), with next upside hurdles seen at the 50%FR (1,527) and the 61.8%FR (1,564)," said the research firm in a market commentary.
Malacca Securities Research recommended defensive sectors including REITs, consumer products and services, utilities and healthcare - particularly hospitals - which have shown relative stability even during broader market declines.
"Meanwhile, with President Trump threatening to impose an additional 50% tariff on China, we believe this could bode well for sentiment across local glove counters, where they have shown oversold signals for the past few weeks," said the broker.
Among Malaysia's blue chips, the sell-off continued with Maybank falling nine sen to RM9.79, Tenaga Nasional dropping 26 sen to RM12.96 and Kuala Lumpur Kepong shedding 44 sen to RM18.64.
Making its debut on the ACE Market against a red tide, SumiSaujana opened at 18 sen a share, representing a 25% discount from its initial public offering price of 24 sen a share.
