KL bourse to stay in the doldrums until domestic woes are resolved

AFTER five months of sustained net sell-off by foreign investors (since end April 2015), the Malaysian bourse found some hope in October, which is ironic given that it is generally regarded as a "jinx" month for equities world over.

Over the first three weeks of October, Malaysian equities enjoyed a reprieve with an estimated foreign net buy of RM620 million, according to Maybank Kim Eng Research. That move by investors could have been purely tactical given that the ringgit had slipped to a low of RM4.457/USD in late September.

Alas, the respite was short lived with activity among this group of investors turning into net sell mode for the last week of the month with foreign net sell for the first 10 months of the year totalling nearly RM18 billion - about 2.5 times higher than in 2014. The languishing state of Malaysian stocks underscore the concerns, most of which it shares with regional peers, such as a commodity slump, looming rate hike in the US and China's slowing economy.