KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI opened in the red in the morning trade on Monday, April 19, in line with the slump at regional markets due to the fallout from US regulators' decision to charge Goldman Sachs Group Inc with fraud related to subprime mortgages.
According to Reuters, defaults on subprime mortgages and the unraveling of related derivatives and debt played a major role in the credit crunch that led to a meltdown on Wall Street and the worst US recession since the 1930s.
Last Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 125.91 points, or 1.13% to 11,018.66, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was off 19.54 points, or 1.61% to 1,192.13. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 34.43 points, or 1.37%, to 2,481.26.
The FBM KLCI fell 6.03 points to 1,326.74 at 9.05am. Losers thumped gainers by 196 to 28, while 64 counters traded unchanged. Trading volume was 35.37 million shares valued at RM25.1 million.
Kossan was the top loser in early trade and fell 17 sen to RM7.60. MPI lost 15 sen to RM6.85, Supermax down 14 sen to RM6.66, WCT fell 13 sen to RM2.80 while Ajinomoto and Tan Chong lost 10 sen each to RM4.76 and RM4.60, respectively.
Meanwhile, Latexx, Unisem, Faber and Cahya Mata Sarawak fell 9 sen each to RM3.70, RM2.93, RM2.23 and RM2.81, respectively.