Local stocks to trend lower on Friday

Local stocks are expected to open lower on Friday, mainly driven by investors' concern on US Federal Reserve's plan to reduce stimulus in the coming months as well as fear on China's slowing economy.

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index, which fell by 10.54 points or 0.59 per cent yesterday, is likely to test the 1,740 support level today.

"Asian stocks are poised for another day of sharp falls on Friday, tracking a deep sell-off in global risk assets overnight after the Federal Reserve gave markets a time-line for the unwinding of its monetary stimulus and as Chinese financial markets face a crash crunch.

"For the KLCI, immediate support is seen at 1,740 points," said JF Apex Research in its report this morning.

Analysts say investors will be closely looking at the market's performance today, to see if the benchmark index can stay above the support level.

""If it goes below the support level, it may get a downtrend momentum going," said a broker when contacted this morning," said a broker when contacted this morning.

Regionally, major Asian markets are experiencing continuous sell down.

At 8:17 am, Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell by 2.13 per cent or 276.68 points at 12,737.9, while Korea's KOSPI suffered a 2.31 per cent decline to 1,807.77 (as at 8:39am). Astralia's S&P/ ASX 200 Index declined by 1.44 per cent to 4,690.1 (as at 8.38am).

Foreign funds are also expected to continue with the selling trend today. On Thursday, foreign funds were net sellers of RM282 million worth of Malaysian stocks.