KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia fell sharply in morning trade as weak earnings results and dampened investor sentiment sparked a broad-based selldown in equity.
Regional sentiment was weak on Wednesday following US President Donald Trump's comments that he was not happy with the current progress in resolving the US-China trade conflict.
Japan's Nikkei and Hong Kong's Hang Seng were down about 1% each while Shanghai's Composite Index slipped back 0.8%.
The morning selldown marked an accelerated pullback for the FBM KLCI following two straight days of declines. At the opening bell, the benchmark index had slipped below the 100-day simple moving average and proceeded to fall through supporting levels.
At midday, the FBM KLCI was down 28.67 points to 1,816.36. Trading volume on the stock exchange was 1.42 billion worth RM1.25bil. Decliners far outpaced advancers 717 to 164 and 300 counters remained unchanged.
Axiata, CIMB, TNB and MISC took a combined 18 points off the FBM KLCI. Axiata, which had posted weak earnings, fell 63 sen to RM4.44. CIMB pulled back 31 sen to RM6.34 while MISC lost 33 sen to RM6.34.
Tenaga Nasional, which also posted disappointing earnings, dropped 24 sen to RM15.10.
Petronas counters also experienced declines in the morning session, with Petronas Chemicals losing nine sen to RM8.34, Petronas Dagangan falling 82 sen to RM25.18 and Petronas Gas sliding six sen to RM17.92.
Gainers on the index were few, with Nestle rising 20 sen to RM149.30 and Hong Leong Bank adding 20 sen to RM19.
On the broader market, Panasonic was down 70 sen to RM38.92, F&N lost 54 sen to RM36.42 and Lafarge Malaysia dropped 25 sen to RM3.65.
Among advancing stocks, N2N rose eight sen to RM1.11, Kossan grew 15 sen to RM7.20 and Integrated Logistics gained 15 sen to 75 sen.
OIl prices dipped ahead of talks between Russia and Saudi Arabia to relax overcompliance on supply cuts amid risk of supply disruptions from Venezuela and Iran. WTI crude dropped 25 cents to US$71.94 a barrel while Brent crude fell US$79.12 a barrel.
In currencies, the ringgit slid 0.18% against the US dollar at 3.9748. However, it rose 0.16% against the pound sterling at 5.3328 and was unchanged against the Singapore dollar at 2.9648.
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