27-11-2007: All Asian markets down, Proton extends losses

All Asian markets fell at midday on Nov 27, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index the top loser while at Bursa Malaysia, Proton extended its losses as investors continued to sell their shares after the government ended talks with Volkswagen last week.

At 12.30pm, the KLCI was down 7.01 points to 1,357.36, the FBM Emas fell 50.66 points to 9,161.83 and the Second Board Index lost 49.78 points to 6,797.8. The KLCI futures fell 16 points to 1,367.5.

Turnover shrank to 356 million shares valued at RM474 million. There were 136 gainers, 572 losers while 192 counters were unchanged.

Among Asian markets, the Hang Seng Index fell 2.18% or 603 points to 27,023.1, dragged by losses in Bank of China shares after a key shareholder sold a US$567 million (RM1.9 billion) stake.

Singapore’s Straits Times Index fell 1.77% to 3,358.16, Shanghai’s A Share Index 1.51% lower at 5,126.93, South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.83% at 1,839.87 and Japan’s Nikkei 225 0.45% down at 15,067.77.

Light crude oil was trading at US$97.03 per barrel. Crude palm oil futures fell RM16 to RM3,011 per tonne.

The ringgit was quoted at 3.366 to the US dollar.

At Bursa, the KLCI fell at the start of trade as investors’ sentiment was dampened by the overnight losses on Wall Street and worries about the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

However, news that the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority had reached a deal to buy an equity stake in US banking giant Citigroup for US$7.5 billion could help offset worries about credit-related losses in major banks.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM11.50, Telekom added 10 sen to RM10.70 while Tenaga fell five sen to RM8.95.