Share prices on Bursa Malaysia continued to fall for the fourth consecutive day on Tuesday, March 16, although only marginally. Investor sentiment has weakened after the recent pace of steep declines sparked by China’s credit tightening fears.

The FBM KLCI has lost a total of 29.3 points in the last four trading days. Its inability to re-take the psychologically important 1,300-point mark yesterday also caused sidelined investors, who are waiting for fresh external leads.

The FBM KLCI was mostly in negative territory on Tuesday – although it was in the black in the morning, and did try to re-take the 1,300 point mark after falling below it on Monday. The index rose as much as five points in the morning, hitting an intra-day high of 1,304.4. However, weak sentiment saw it slipping into the red, where it ended the day 0.8 of a point lower at 1,298.9.

Market breadth was negative with declining stocks beating advancing ones by a seven-to-six margin. Trading volume fell from 765 million to 679 million shares as investors stayed more cautious.

Actively traded stocks include Nam Fatt, Talam, Genetec, AEM, KNM, Maybank and AirAsia. Major gainers include Hai-O, Litrak, Hume and Measat. Losers include Keck Seng, Proton and CIMB.

Despite lingering worry about further monetary tightening measures in China, Chinese stock prices rose on Tuesday, sending most regional bourses higher, but only modestly. Chinese shares had earlier fallen to three-week lows on Monday, amid fears of monetary tightening after higher than expected inflation in February.

There were also no fresh overnight leads from Wall Street. Investors are awaiting a slew of economic data this week and the FOMC meeting. While US interest rates are not expected to be raised at this meeting, investors will closely scrutinize the Federal Reserve’s language as to the timing of rate hikes and its outlook for the economy ahead.