Malaysia's key share index ended at a two-week low on Thursday, led by banking stocks as investors worry their earnings would be hurt by an impending interest rate change.
Top lender Malayan Banking Bhd led the fall, finishing 4.3 percent down at 11.10 ringgit ($2.92). This was followed by second-biggest lender Commerce Asset-Holding Bhd, which lost 3.9 percent to 5.00 ringgit.
"It creates a lot of uncertainties," said Mohd Hasnul Ismar Mohd Ismail, general manager for TA Unit Trust Management Bhd.
He was referring to the central bank's announcement last week that Malaysia would switch to a new interest rate framework within the next few months but assured banks' margins would not be hit.
The absence of details on the new framework, however, has rattled investors' nerves.
The 100-stock Kuala Lumpur Composite Index fell 1.6 percent to 887.08 points but the sub-Financial Index, which measures the performance of financial stocks, fared worse, tumbling 2.3 percent to 7,408.31. Overall market volume was a light 427 million shares as losers beat gainers 474 to 294.
Shares of the tin smelter bucked the broader market, rising 5.5 percent to 6.70 ringgit after tin prices hit a fresh 14-1/2 year high of $8,550 a tonne on the London Metal Exchange.
The metal's price also jumped to a 12-year peak of $8,520 on the Kuala Lumpur Tin Market amid a global shortage of tin concentrate, the raw material for making refined tin, while demand is growing.
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