MALAYSIAN RINGGIT TRADE AT 4.2430 TO THE US DOLLAR

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -  The ringgit shed nine sen against the US dollar Monday morning, its biggest single day drop in the current down cycle. The ringgit was trading at 4.2430 to the US dollar, which was another fresh low since 1997.

The fall in the ringgit puts heavy pressure on Bursa Malaysia, with the key FBM KLCI down more than 27 points in early Monday trade while the ringgit weakened further against the US dollar.

At 9.08am, the FBM KLCI was down 27.18 points or 1.73% to 1,547.49.  Turnover was nearly 200 million shares valued at RM79.52mil. Losers beat gainers 432 to 38 while 90 stocks were unchanged.

• Bloomberg reported Asian stocks slid to a two-year low as the selloff that has spread to almost every corner of the global equity market intensified, spurring demand for haven assets.
• JF Apex Research said following the bearish sentiment in the US and Europe, "we expect the KLCI to be negative today and likely to test its support of 1,545".
• BIMB Securities Research data showed foreign funds were net sellers of Malaysian equities at -RM1.349bil in the week ended Aug 21 and on the last day of the week they were net sellers at –RM375mil. Local institutions were net buyers at RM1.340bil in the week and RM363.5mil on Friday.

At Bursa Malaysia, banks were under pressure, with Public Bank down 38 sen to RM17.32 and Maybank losing 22 sen to RM8.37.

Petronas Gas fell 38 sen to RM17.32, KL Kepong 30 sen to RM 20 while Amway was down 20 sen to RM10 and MPI 19 sen to RM6.30. AirAsia fell one sen to 96 sen in active trade. 
MISC was up 16 sen to RM8.15.

Source: The Star