KLCI plunge on late selloff

Asian markets closed sharply lower on April 8 on concerns about company earnings, while at Bursa Malaysia, the KL Composite Index ended at the day’s low in a late sell-off.

Asian markets got off on a weak start as sentiment was weighed down by overnight losses on Wall Street. As the US earnings season began, Alcoa Inc reported its second consecutive quarterly loss, igniting worries about another round of poor profits

In Japan, the stock market was affected by an announcement from LCD television manufacturer Sharp Corp that it had doubled its loss estimate for the business year just ended. Other exporters were hurt by a stronger yen. The Nikkei 225 fell 2.69% to 8,595.01 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index declined 3.04% to 14,474.86 and Singapore’s Straits Times Index fell 1.02% to 1,783.96.

The KLCI closed down 11.97 points or 1.3% to 907.87, losing about seven points in the last five minutes of trade.

Trading volume was 613 million shares valued at RM945.8 million. Declining counters beat advancers 352 to 144 while 178 stocks were unchanged.

Axiata, which went ex, closed five sen higher to RM1.84 with 26 million shares done but off the day’s best of RM1.98.

Maybank-OR was the most active with 29.6 million units done, shedding four sen to RM1.02. It came under heavy selling pressure the previous day.

Other actively traded stocks were KNM, Mulpha, MRCB, E&O, Genting, WCT and Resorts.

Loh & Loh was the top loser while other decliners were Bursa, YTL, Tenaga, Lafarge and Tanjong.

Malaysians and investors will await details of the new Cabinet line-up at 3pm on April 9.