22-10-2007: Asian markets fall in volatile trade

22-10-2007: Asian markets fall in volatile trade
by Joseph Chin
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KUALA LUMPUR: Asian markets including Bursa Malaysia fell in the morning session on Oct 22, with South Korea among the worst hit, in volatile trade as investors’ sentiment was hurt by the weak Wall Street last Friday.

At 12.30pm, the KLCI was down 25.08 points or 1.83% to 1,345.09, but off the early low of 1,339. The FBMEmas lost 187.59 points to 9,060.08 and the Second Board Index lost 1.7 points to 106.48. The KLCI futures fell 37 points to 1,320.5.

Turnover was 1.03 billion shares valued at RM887.54 million. Losers hammered gainers 791 to 71 while 105 counters were unchanged.

Asian markets fell with South Korea’s Kospi down 3.18% or 62.61 point to 1,907.49.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 down 2.58% to 16,380.63 and Singapore’s Straits Times Index lost 2.14% to 3,667.66. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 2.53% to 28,720.83 and Shanghai’s A Share Index fell 0.37% to 6,084.39.

Light crude oil was off its record high of US$90 and it was trading at US$87.62 per barrel for November delivery

The ringgit was quoted at RM3.374 to US$1.

Analysts said the correction in the US markets was long overdue and they expected the markets would continue to be volatile.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank fell 30 sen to RM11.20, Tenaga 20 sen lower to RM9.15 and Telekom 10 sen lower to RM10.10.

Bursa fell 60 sen to RM13.20 while Kossan gave up most of its gains from last Friday, down 58 sen to RM4.22.

Crude palm oil futures fell RM45 to RM2,815 per tonne for November delivery and lost RM54 to RM2,711 per tonne for January. KL Kepong fell 40 sen to RM13.90, IOI Corp 35 sen to RM6.30.

Parkson fell 35 sen to RM7.20 while Naim, UMW and Public Bank foreign fell 30 sen each to RM5.64, RM14 and RM10.90 respectively.

DiGi rose 20 sen to RM23.20 after delivering a strong set of results. RHB Cap, VADS and Gamuda added 20 sen each to RM6, RM5.70 and RM9.20 respectively.

Call warrants of Hong Kong listed stocks rose in very active trade. CHCBC-C1 rose nine sen to 19 sen. It was the most active with 68.7 million shares done.

Financially-distressed Megan Media rose 5.5 sen to 16 sen and the warrants 7.5 sen to 13 sen in very active trade.


Source: http://www.theedgedaily.com/cms/content.jsp?id=com.tms.cms.article.Article_c63529d3-cb73c03a-17ebe660-6e60c597