KUALA LUMPUR – Bursa Malaysia opened mixed today as global recession concerns resurged, especially after the Bank of England surprised everyone with a 50 basis points rate hike, a dealer said.
At 9.10am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI added 1.57 points to 1,392.46 from 1,390.89 at Friday’s close.
The key index opened 0.66 of-a-point better at 1,391.55.
However, the broader market was negative with decliners surpassing advancers 152 to 126, while 250 counters were unchanged, 1,789 untraded and 40 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 236.09 million units worth RM80.70 million.
The ringgit opened marginally better against the US dollar today despite the further strengthening of the greenback’s appeal as a safe haven currency following the chaos in Russia over the weekend, dealers said.
At 9am, the local unit rose to 4.6725/6790 versus the greenback compared to 4.6760/6805 at last Friday’s close.
SPI Asset Management managing director Stephen Innes said risk sentiments were impacted by the aborted mutiny in Russia and noted that global investors remained spooked by central bank monetary tightening.
He also highlighted that over the past month, the Malaysian ringgit has underperformed Asean peers alongside the Chinese yuan, adding that the “joined-at-the-hip” affinity reflects deep trade ties and that policymakers’ focus is often on the ringgit-Chinese yuan cross rate.
“The renminbi opened relatively quiet this morning. Given the expectations of further moderate weakness in the Chinese currency and no clear catalyst for improving portfolio flows, even if the ringgit improves a bit, we expect to see buyers of US dollars on dips,” he said.
In the meantime, the ringgit was traded mixed against a basket of major currencies.
It was easier versus the British pound at 5.9495/9578 from 5.9469/9527 at Friday’s close and was weaker vis-a-vis the euro at 5.0954/1024 from 5.0781/0830 last week, but rose against the Japanese yen to 3.2577/2627 from 3.2645/2680 previously.
The local note was also traded mixed against other Asean currencies.
The ringgit went down against the Singapore dollar to 3.4578/4628 versus 3.4568/4604 at last Friday’s close and declined against the Thai baht to 13.2877/3115 from 13.2765/2950 previously.
However, it had strengthened against the Philippines’ peso to 8.37/8.40 from 8.38/8.40 last week and rose versus the Indonesian rupiah to 311.4/312.1 from 311.7/312.2 previously. – Bernama, June 26, 2023
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