Malaysian share prices closed two percent lower on Monday amid a region wide heavy sell-off, led by losses in plantation giant Sime Darby, dealers said. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index closed 26.79 points lower at 1,330.61 on volume of 580.46 million shares, valued at 1.52 billion ringgit (476 million dollars) while decliners led advancers 598 to 173.
At the close, the Malaysian ringgit was quoted at 3.1975/2005 against the US dollar. Wee Kim Hong, head of research at MA Securities said he was not surprised about the market's sharp drop on Monday. "The trend is a bit bearish and the market just followed the regional pattern," he said.
"Everybody is in a bearish mood, sentiment is not there, people are shying away from equities," he said. Wee said the local bourse will continue to look to Wall Street for direction.
Kenny Yee, the head of OSK Research said investors were cautious ahead of the polls on Saturday. "At this juncture, many, especially the foreign legion, have presumed that election 2008 could be a testing one for the ruling coalition party," he said.
The ruling Barisan Nasional coalition is expected to win with a two-third majority but analysts predict the opposition would secure more seats in Parliament amid heightened ethnic tensions and rising living costs.
Malaysia's top bank Maybank fell 15 sen to 8.95 ringgit, national utility Tenaga dropped 10 sen to 8.95 ringgit and state-controlled Telekom Malaysia declined 20 sen to 11.20 ringgit.
Sime Darby, the world's largest oil palm grower, slumped 50 sen to 11.10 ringgit and stock exchange operator Bursa lost 50 sen at 10.90 ringgit. State-owned property and construction group UEM World tumbled 20 sen to 3.30 ringgit and Malaysian Resources Corp slumped 10 sen to 1.91 ringgit.