Asian markets look to Wall Street for leads

Asian markets look to Wall Street for leads

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysia's share market fell back to earth Tuesday, ending a spectacular four-day rally, as Asian bourses ended mixed with investors looking to Wall Street for direction after a long Labor Day week-end.

Kuala Lumpur shares tumbled 21.5 percent as investors locked in profits on the massive gains which followed last week's imposition of dramatic foreign exchange controls and the sacking of deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim.

Hong Kong shares rose 1.4 percent, Tokyo and Singapore each ended 0.8 percent higher while Taipei advanced 2.1 percent.

Sydney fell 0.5 percent, consolidating recent gains. Thai shares dropped 3. 5 percent, Jakarta fell 1.6 percent and Seoul ended barely lower.

Regional markets had their sights fixed on Wall Street to see how it performs following last week-end's comments by Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan hinting at a U.S. interest-rate cut, dealers said.

The U.S. market was closed Monday for Labor Day.

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian stocks plunged as investors locked in profits and foreign sellers dumped shares.

Investors who previously traded Malaysian shares on Singapore's over-the-counter market, the Central Limit Order Book (CLOB) International, were also starting to sell on the local bourse, they added.

The Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange 100-share weighted composite index plummeted 95.50 points to end at 349.56 points, erasing the 81.62-point rise it posted Monday on heavy local buying.

The index had gained some 57 percent in a rally that began Wednesday and pushed stock prices up to artificially high levels following the imposition of drastic currency controls and the sacking of deputy premier and finance minister Anwar Ibrahim.

The market opened slightly higher Tuesday but slid into negative territory after 11 minutes of trading and went all the way down as players scrambled to cash in their shares, dealers said.

"Foreign selling has started. There was already a bit of that late yesterday. Today there is more," an institutional dealer at a local brokerage said.

"They wanted to clear positions since the forex controls were placed but were prevented by technicalities. They have about worked that out and are now selling," she said.

In Tokyo, the key 225-issue Nikkei index ended the session 123.43 points higher at 14,913.49 following a 5.3 percent, 747.15-point jump the previous day, helped by the yen's rally against the dollar.

But the Topix index of all issues on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange fell 1.64 points to 1,131.01.

In Hong Kong, the key Hang Seng index gained 112.49 points to close at 8,189.25.

In Singapore, the Straits Times index rose 6.58 points to 868.68, off a high of 894.53. The All-Singapore index was up by nearly four-tenths of a point to 269.49.

In Bangkok, the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) composite index fell 7.71 points to close at 212.85 points, while the select SET 50 was down 0.69 points to 14.24 points.

In Manila, the Philippine Stock Exchange gained 5.15 points to 1,192.08.

In Seoul, the Korea Stock Exchange index closed down 1.87 points at 326.35, off a low of 324.77.

In Taipei, the Taiwan Stock Exchange weighted price index rose 141.53 points to 6,942. 26.

In Shanghai, the B share index gained 0.23 points to settle at 31.75 points while the A share index of locally-traded stocks ended down 11.68 points, or 0.9 percent, to 1,240.81 points.

In Auckland, the NZSE-40 index rose 29.01 points to 1,809.67.

In Sydney, the Australian Stock Exchange's benchmark All Ordinaries index slipped 14.0 points to 2,555.2.