Malaysian share prices closed flat on Thursday in cautious trade after the release of weaker-than-expected October industrial output data, dealers said.
The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index slipped 0.09 points at 1,098.26 and volume traded was volume was 1.22 billion shares valued at 1.96 billion ringgit (552.97 million dollars). Losers outnumbered gainers 677 to 235, with 248 stocks unchanged and 157 counters untraded.
At the close, the ringgit was quoted at 3.5425/5475 to the dollar. Malaysian industrial output fell 0.8 percent year-on-year in October after a 3.6 percent gain in September due to slower growth in the manufacturing and mining sectors, according to data from the statistics department.
"The negative growth for October industrial output was way below our projection of growth of around 2.9 percent," said economist with brokerage firm MIDF Sisma, Imran Nurginias Ibrahim.
"Even though the numbers are not alarming yet, it has caused us to look more closely at the US economic data in the days to come," he said. Malaysia's export fortunes depend to a large extent on demand from the United States.
However, Imran said the industrial output numbers were expected to rebound back to positive growth in November, citing less working days in October due to a long festive season in the month. Dealers also said many stocks saw profit-taking pressure following recent gains.
Among blue chips, Telekom Malaysia fell 0.25 ringgit to 9.65, Malayan Banking was flat at 11.80, and Genting dropped 0.50 ringgit to 29.25. Newspaper groups New Straits Times Press Bhd (NSTP) and Utusan Melayu (Malaysia) Bhd were both sharply higher on renewed hopes the merger between the two companies would still go through. Utusan Melayu surged 0.37 ringgit to 1.84 and NSTP added 0.27 ringgit to 2.74.