Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Asian markets lower on poorer Wall Street performance

PETALING JAYA: The benchmark index halted a two-day winning streak by opening lower Wednesday.

At 10am, the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) was down 5.2 points, or 0.6%, at 913 points. Losers led gainers 40 to 191, while 115 counters were unchanged.

Some 58.6 million shares changed hands, worth over RM99.4mil.

Regional bourses were also trading weaker Wednesday in line with the poorer performance on Wall Street Tuesday.

Nikkei 225 dropped 2.8%, Kospi fell 1.5%, Hang Seng Index declined 1.1% while Singapore Straits Times Index was down by 2%.

Sentiment turned cautious as several US companies missed earnings estimate in their financial results released, and a similar trend is expected in Asia and the rest of the world.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.5% while crude oil for November delivery settled at US$70.89 per barrel.

The KLCI was dragged by selling in blue chips including IOI Corp Bhd, MISC Bhd and Public Bank, which dropped 10 sen each to RM3.10, RM8.50 and RM8.80 respectively. Sime Darby was also down by 5 sen to RM6.30 in anticipation of weaker crude palm oil prices.

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