KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 26): The main index at Bursa Malaysia drifted lower in early trade on Friday, tracking the retreat at regional markets and overnight selloff at Wall Street.
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At 9.08am, the FBM KLCI dipped 0.11 points to 1,581.43.
The early decliners inluded Malaysian Pacific Industries Bhd, Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd, KESM Industries Bhd, Euro Holdings Bhd, Unisem (M) Bhd, Ajinomoto (M) Bhd, Pentamaster Corp Bhd, Sarawak Oil Palms Bhd and UWC Bhd.
Bloomberg said global bonds continued to sell off and Asian stocks retreated after a bruising session for US shares and Treasuries.
The dollar strengthened, it said.
Rakuten Trade said fears over higher rates returned to haunt traders as the US 10-year Treasury yield topped 1.6% prompting a sell-off on Wall Street.
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The research house said the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 560 points to close at 31,400 mark while the Nasdaq bore the brunt of the selling declined over 3% to just above the 13,100 level.
“As such, we reckon regional markets may be affected as sentiments turns jittery.
“At home, the FBM KLCI finally ended higher in the absence of any late selling.
“Nonetheless, we expect a muted performance today in line with the regional markets.
“Thus, we believe the benchmark index to trend around the 1,580/85 range today. The plantation sector remains overlook by investors despite crude palm oil again touched the RM4,000/metric ton but we expect this to change soon,” it said.- The Edge Market