Shares drift sideways

Written by Insider Asia

Thursday, 02 July 2009 17:41

Sentiment for equities saw little change on Thursday, July 2 from what has been the case for the past few weeks. Investor confidence in a global economic recovery remains mostly intact but there are concerns over its timeframe.

There have been little leads from Wall Street of late. Last night was no different. The closely monitored Dow Jones Industrial Average and broader-based Standard & Poor’s finished higher but buying was tempered with caution. Investors are waiting for the latest reading on the US job market.

The market expects the number of job losses in June to be slightly higher than that in May, exacerbated by plant shut downs at General Motors, which has filed for bankruptcy in attempts to restructure itself. Unemployment rate is estimated to rise further to 9.6% from 9.4% in May. In fact, most analysts expect unemployment to keep rising well into 2010 when it could top 10-11%. The weak labour market is one of the primary reasons behind growing concerns that the global economic recovery may be slow.

In other developments, crude oil futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange hovered just below US$70 per barrel. Oil came under some selling pressure after a larger than expected increase in US stocks and recovery concerns.

The KL Composite Index moved in and out of positive territory in somewhat directionless trading Thursday. Share price movements were, by and large, capped in the absence of fresh leads. Market volume totaled less than 907 million shares.

The benchmark index eventually closed marginally lower at 1,078.7. Some of the bigger losers for the day were BAT, Tanjong, DiGi and Maybank. At the other end, Bumiputra Commerce, Sime Darby and Public Bank were some of the bigger gainers. The three stocks will be among the four biggest constituents in the enhanced FBM KLCI, which will be introduced next Monday.

#Today's diary* What to expect on July 3, 2009< Prev		Next >Ingress gets 6-months extension

Last Updated on Thursday, 02 July 2009 18:09

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