KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips fell early Tuesday as Bursa Malaysia and key Asian markets came under pressure following the overnight slide on Wall Street.
At 9.30am, the FBMKLCI was down 1.55 points or 0.08% to 1,846.39. Turnover was 259.38 million shares valued at RM109.58mil. There were 129 gainers, 287 losers and 240 counters unchanged.
Asian shares fell on Tuesday as investors dumped high-flying US technology shares on fears of stiffer regulation as Facebook came under fire following reports it allowed improper access to user data, Reuters reported.
The retreat came as investors braced for new Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's first policy meeting starting later in the day and amid concerns that U.S. President Donald Trump could impose additional protectionist trade measures.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.2%. Japan's Nikkei fell 1%, the news wire reported.
At Bursa, Poh Huat fell 22 sen to RM1.30, Nestle 20 sen to RM129.40, Top Glove 14 sen lower at RM9.56, Magni-Tech and MISC eight sen lower at RM5.09 and RM6.97.
MPI fell 20 sen to RM9.03 and Kesm was down 18 sen to RM19.90.
Notion-WC jumped 24 sen to 24.5 sen with 890,900 shares done.
Petronas Gas and BAT gained 22 sen each to RM18.08 and RM28.22. Tenaga added 10 sen to RM15.80 while Muda was up eight sen to RM2.05.
Hengyuan rose six sen to RM8.45. Public Bank was also up six sen to RM23.18.