Shares on the Bursa Malaysia opened lower on Monday, Nov 30. This was unsurprising given that the local bourse was closed last Friday when regional markets were heavily sold down. Thus, our market had some catching up on losses to do. Fortunately, we were spared the worst of the sell down seeing that fears have eased.

Indeed, Asian stock markets rebounded Monday. Investor sentiment was much firmer at the start of the new week after having been buffeted by Dubai’s shocking proposal for a debt moratorium late last week.

Fears of a wider fallout from Dubai’s debt crisis were soothed after the United Arab Emirates central bank pledged additional funding to all banks in the country. Most bellwether indices in the region traded higher, recouping some lost ground after last week’s tumble.

Nevertheless, investors should be even more cautious going forward. Problems in former high-flying Dubai could sound a warning for other highly indebted countries and companies.

The FBM KLCI opened weaker, falling as low as 1,248.6 points in the early hour, but gradually clawed back some of its losses. The benchmark index was faring quite well until some last-minute selling sent it reeling again near the close. The FBM KLCI ended almost 12 points lower at 1,259.11. BAT, Tanjong plc, DiGi, CIMB and HL Bank were among the big losers for the day.

Market breadth though stayed well in negative territory throughout the day. At the close, losing stocks outnumbered gaining ones by a ratio of about five to two. The warrants and shares for Green Packet, Hai-O and Maxis were some of the more actively traded gainers for the day.

Trading volume registered improvement over the past week. About 1.09 billion shares were traded Monday, compared to the daily average of about 771 million shares last week. The most actively traded counters were KNM, Maxis and Green Packet-WA.