Market ends lower on renewed Greece concerns

Stock markets around the region were mostly lower on Friday, April 23 as renewed concerns over Greece’s debts affected sentiment.

On Thursday, the EU’s statistics agency said that Greece's budget deficit was worse than earlier reported. Moody's downgraded Greece's sovereign ratings by one notch to A3, sending the country's borrowing costs surging again. This also suggests that the International Monetary Fund and other euro-zone countries may have to come out with a bailout package soon.

The negative news from Greece overshadowed modest overnight gains on Wall Street amid better than expected housing data and good corporate earnings. Sales of existing homes in the US rose 6.8% last month after falling 0.8%, and ahead of expectations of a 5.2% increase.

On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrials Average index rose 9 points, recouping earlier losses of as much as 108 points after the positive housing data and President Barack Obama's speech on financial reform contained no negative surprises for the banking sector.

The latest report on jobless claims saw the number of people applying for unemployment benefits declining by 24,000 to 456,000 last week, after rising in the past few weeks. This suggests employers are laying off fewer workers, although overall claims are high and labour market conditions remain weak. Applications for jobless benefits peaked at 651,000 in March 2009.

The FBM KLCI traded within a narrow range throughout the day. It started on a modestly positive note, but ended marginally lower by 0.2 points to 1,336.8. Market breadth was negative with declining stocks beating advancing ones by a 7-to-6 margin on volume of 818 million shares.

Actively traded stocks include Talam, KNM, Time dotCom, Privasia, Gula Perak and Globetronics. Top gainers include Tomy, PacificMas, Daibochi, MISC and LaFarge Cement. Losers include CMSB, Notion VTec, and selected blue chips like Genting PLANTATION []s, DiGi and Pos Malaysia.