KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI ended lower on Tuesday, bucking regional gains, while the ringgit posted its biggest one-day gain in nearly seven weeks against the US dollar following U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI bucked the regional trends, falling 2.32 points, or 0.15%, to 1,514.29 after moving between its intraday high of 1,519.06 and low of 1,511.09.
On the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 634 to 346 while 458 counters were unchanged. About 2.53 billion shares, valued at RM2.04bil, changed hands.
Nestle slid 56 sen to RM75.84, Heineken fell 32 sen to RM25.48, Bintulu Port lost 26 sen to RM5.20 and IHH Healthcare declined 26 sen to RM6.59.
Among the gainers, PETRONAS Dagangan jumped 68 sen to RM21.90, Hong Leong Financial Group rose 28 sen to RM16.46, Malaysian Pacific Industries
climbed 28 sen to RM20.06 and Aliianz added 20 sen to RM19.08.
Cuckoo International, which made its debut on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia, closed flat at RM1.08 with 42.73 million shares traded.
On the forex market, the ringgit strengthened 1.09% to 4.2480 against the US dollar, marking its most in about seven weeks.
The local unit, however, weakened 0.56% against the British pound to 5.7779, while edging up 0.16% against the Singapore dollar to 3.3159.
Oil prices fell sharply following news of a ceasefire between Iran and Israel. US West Texas Intermediate dropped US$2.28, or 3.33%, to US$66.23, while Brent crude declined US$2.47, or 3.46%, to US$69.01.
According to Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, tensions in the Middle East may still be smouldering, but from the market’s perspective, the fire alarm has been turned off.
“Oil prices, once torchbearers of geopolitical panic, are now the poster child for mean reversion. Brent has collapsed more than 15% from its Monday highs, settling back into the low US$70s — and briefly plunging into the US$68 handle — as President Trump’s “complete and total” ceasefire between Israel and Iran capped off what now feels like a geopolitical false start,” he said.
Equity markets in Asia reflected the improved sentiment. The MSCI Asia ex-Japan index rose 2.33%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 advanced 1.14% to 38,790.56 while South Korea’s Kospi closed up 2.96% at 3,103.64.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng ended 2.06% higher at 24,177.07.
China’s CSI300 index added 1.2% to 3,904.03 while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.15% to 3,420.57.
