Bursa sees RM60.6b wiped out in two days

Good news is that, analysts say, the selling over the past two days may be overdone and a short-term rebound may be under way.

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Kuala Lumpur: The stock market has lost more than RM60.6 billion in value over the past two trading days, but situation could worsen if more selling pressure is in the offing, as this may trigger a series of margin calls by brokerages. "If the markets go down a bit more, broking houses will likely require its clients to top up cash, failing which investors who are trading on margins will have their shares foresold," said a stock broker, adding for now none of the major firms have made the margin call. Jupiter Securities head of research Pong Teng Siew said when the margin call is made, the market will dip again. "We can certainly expect another round of dumping," said Pong, adding analysts were also concerned of "sell orders" by foreign funds. "We need to keep a close watch on how the foreign market perform over the next few days, for signs of any possible sell orders," said Pong. Over the past two trading days, the value of the local stock market has gone down from RM1.34 trillion to about RM1.28 trillion. Yesterday alone, market value lost was RM33.76 billion. Good news is that, analysts said that the selling over the past two days may be overdone and a short-term rebound may be underway. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) of the benchmark KLCI yesterday was at 20.36. The RSI measures the momentum of a security to determine whether it is in an overbought or oversold condition. A reading between 70-80 warns users of an overbought condition and is likely to encounter a downward correction. Reading between 30-20 are considered oversold condition, and warns users of an imminent upward correction. Stocks that may rebound include DRB-HICOM Bhd (share price fell 3.17 per cent to RM2.14 yesterday), Coastal Contracts Bhd (down 8.25 per cent to RM2.11), UEM Land Bhd (down 8.86 per cent to RM2.16), Malaysian Building Society Bhd (down 2.4 per cent to RM1.61), Gamuda Bhd (down 4.76 per cent to RM3.20), Malaysia Resources Corp Bhd (down 3.95 per cent to RM2.19) and SP Setia Bhd (down 4.64 per cent to RM3.70). According to analysts, these are some of the many stocks that they were optimistic over in the long run, backed by fundamentals. DRB-HICOM has a target price of as high as RM3.95, Gamuda RM5.63, UEM Land RM3.90, Coastal Contracts has a target price of more than RM3.80, SP Setia more than RM5.40, and MRCB above RM3.00. There were also 47 stocks that were trading at the 52-week low yesterday. They included Bursa Malaysia Bhd, Naim Holdings Bhd, Star Publications Bhd, UOA Development Bhd, Alam Maritim Resources Bhd, YTL Corp Bhd, YTL Power Bhd, KNM Group Bhd, Ma-xis Bhd, Kinsteel Bhd, Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd, JCY International Bhd, Berjaya Land Bhd and KLCC Property Holdings Bhd.