KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI fell almost 1% on Wednesday in tandem with Asian markets ahead of an expected aggressive interest rate hike from the US Federal Reserve.
At 5pm, the key index was down 13.92 points, or 0.95% to 1,447.18, its intraday low. The index is down 2.73% in the past five days and fell 3.81% in the past one month.
The market breadth was overwhelmingly negative with 529 decliners compared with 296 gainers. Trading volume stood at 2.34 billion shares valued at RM1.66mil.
In today’s session, 22 of the KLCI-component stocks closed lower while six counters chalked up gains.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was quoted at 4.5530, down 0.13% against the US dollar.
The local currency was up 1.02% against the euro at 4.5154. It rose 0.96% against the pound sterling at 5.1606 and rose 0.37% against the Singapore dollar at 3.2220.
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Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz reiterated that there would be no peg of the ringgit to the US dollar amid the continued weakening of the local currency.
“The ringgit is influenced by the movements of currencies across the world – including the main export partners of Malaysia. We are not in a currency or financial crisis like back in 1997 which is being claimed by certain parties,” Zafrul said earlier at a press conference.
Among the losers on Bursa Malaysia, PETRONAS Dagangan tumbled 48 sen to RM21.20, Malaysian Pacific Industries
fell 32 sen to RM29.16, PETRONAS Gas eased 30 sen to RM16.40 and Press Metal lost 28 sen to RM4.14.
Ayer added 25 sen to RM6.50, Hextar Technologies rose 25 sen to RM4.07, SFP Tech gained 21 sen to RM1.71 and MISC climbed 17 sen to RM7.15.
Elsewhere in the region, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.36%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 1.79%, South Korea’s Kospi closed down 0.87% and Singapore’s Straits Ti