KLCI rebounds from bloodshed

by Theleaders-Online | August 6, 2019 7:35 am

KUALA LUMPUR: KLCI made a near-complete recovery from a sharp early-morning sell-off as investors regained some composure following news that Beijing’s central bank set a stronger yuan fixing than expected.

Beijing set the yuan midpoint fixing at 6.9683 per dollar, which helped to soothe investor nerves after Washington labelled China a currency manipulator.

The move by the US Treasury Department on Monday night, which precedes a complaint to the International Monetary Fund, triggered bloodshed in markets starting with Wall Street.[1]

The US’s major indices ended their Monday session with losses ranging from 2.9% to 3.5%.

Predictably, Asian markets were a sea of red at Tuesday’s open but most retraced some losses moving into the afternoon session.

Japan’s Nikkei Index pared losses to 0.9% after falling as much as 2.7% in early trade.

Similar price movement was seen in South Korea’s Kospi index, which crossed midday 0.5% in the red.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was down 0.7% after losing as much as 2% earlier in the day.

Mainland Chinese markets however failed to regain any positive momentum with the Shanghai Composite Index down 2.4% and the CSI300 Index down 2%.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down a marginal 0.07 points at 1.610.34. Trading volume was 1.91 billion shares valued at RM1.32bil.

Market breadth remained deeply negative at 572 decliners to 267 gainers and 359 counters unchanged.

Two of the top decliners on the KLCI were Axiata, sliding 11 sen to RM4.83, and Hong Leong Bank dropping 40 sen to RM17.26.

The declines were offset by strong gains in Petronas Chemicals, adding 17 sen to RM7.40 and Tenaga Nasional, rising 14 sen to RM13.92.

Oil markets rebounded after an overnight rout as shortsellers turned to buying up contracts to lock in profits after recent declines.

US crude eked out a gain of six cents to US$55.28 a barrel while Brent crude saw a sharper rebound of 63 cents to US$60.44 a barrel.

In currencies, the ringgit sustained its fall against the US dollar by 0.2% to 4.1852. It also dropped 0.4% against the pound sterling to 5.0891 and 0.15% against the Singapore dollar to 3.0279.

Source URL: https://theleaders-online.com/klci-rebounds-from-bloodshed/

---