Bursa Malaysia Down In Knee-Jerk Reaction As Trump Wins US Election

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 9 (Bernama) -- The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was down in a knee-jerk reaction in line with global bourses to the shocking results of Republican candidate Donald Trump winning the US presidential election. So far, Trump has won 276 electoral votes, six more than needed to become the next US President, versus Democrat Hillary Clinton's 218 electoral votes. The benchmark index stood at 1,642.34, weaker by 21.48 points or 1.29 per cent after opening 0.30 point higher at 1,664.12. At 3.03 pm, among the top losers on the local bourse, Dutch Lady fell 62 sen to RM58.08, British American Tobacco slipped 60 sen to RM47.76, AEON Credit Service went down 40 sen to RM13.92 and KESM Industries dropped 37 sen to RM8.58. Market breadth was negative with losers outpacing gainers 914 to 76 while 191 counters were unchanged, 491 untraded and 24 others were suspended. Turnover stood at 1.69 billion shares worth RM1.28 billion. Regionally, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 2.87 per cent to 22,252.41, Singapore's Straits Times Index lost 1.93 per cent to 2,765.89, the Jakarta Composite Index reduced 2.12 per cent to 5,354.82 and China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.64 per cent to 3,127.74. Bangkok's SET Composite Index narrowed 1.32 per cent to 1,489.90 and the Philippine's PSE Composite Index dropped 2.91 per cent to 7,095.46. FXTM Market Research Vice President Jameel Ahmad said gold's safe-haven appeal is also being driven through the roof with the precious metal rallying on investor uncertainty. At mid-day the global gold price stood at US$42.24 a gramme. -- BERNAMA