By Yow Hong Chieh
The Malaysian Insider
Aug 09, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 9 — Malaysia’s benchmark index regained some ground today but still fell 1.66 per cent as regional markets struggled to halt their slide on European and US debt crises fears.

The index recovered from its early morning low of 1,423.47 to end the day at 1,472.14, down 24.85 points from the start of trading. Losers continued to outpace gainers 828 to 159, with 179 counters unchanged.

The broad-based Emas index meanwhile rebounded to 10,048.74 at market close after losing as much as 490.12 points, or 1.75 per cent, earlier.

The Kuala Lumpur share market is down an estimated RM91 billion from last Monday following last week’s rout on Wall Street, the worst since Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008.

OSK Research yesterday downgraded the bourse from overweight to neutral and cut its year-end target for the benchmark index to 1557 from 1680 due to a global crisis in confidence.

Other Asian stocks continued to tumble today despite unprecedented policy actions by the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Obama administration to prop up investor confidence.

The Nikkei dipped 1.68 per cent to 8,944.48, the Hang Seng Index plunged 5.66 per cent to 19,330.70, the Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.03 per cent to 2,526.07 and the Kospi Index fell 3.64 per cent to 1,801.35.

As of yesterday, stock losses had wiped more than US$3.8 trillion (RM11.4 trillion) from investor wealth globally over eight days and sent investors rushing for safety in the Swiss franc, the Japanese yen and gold, according to Reuters.