May 22, 2009

Malaysian stocks set to drop today

MALAYSIAN stocks are set to drop today as weak sentiment from the sharply lower Wall Street crosses over to Asia with some profit-taking in big cap stocks such as the country’s biggest lender Maybank and Telekom Malaysia.

“If the market falls below 1,000 points or even 980 points, we are in for a sharp correction. We need that correction in order to perform better in the second half,” said a dealer with an investment bank. “Maybank and Telekom Malaysia earnings were rather lacklustre last night, so expect some heavy profit-taking.”

US stocks slid in a broad sell-off yesterday as investors, concerned about the US budget deficit, exited dollar-denominated assets across the board.


The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 129.91 points, or 1.54 per cent, at 8,292.13. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was down 15.14 points, or 1.68 per cent, at 888.33. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 32.59 points, or 1.89 per cent, at 1,695.25. - Reuters