KUALA LUMPUR: Tenaga Nasional and banking heavyweights saw heavy selling pressure in Thursday morning trade as negative sentiment over the US-China trade conflict continued to mount.
Asian markets were also mostly lower with the Shanghai Composite Index falling 0.2%, compounding its losses after a nearly 4% decline on Tuesday.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 18.47 points to 1,691.28, marking a 10.7% correction from the index's peak of 1,895.18 on April 19. The decline also saw the index slip below a key support level of 1,700. Market turnover was muted at 1.24 billion shares with a value of RM1.07 bil.
The last time the benchmark index entered a correction phase, defined as a fall of more than 10%, was in August 2015.
Tenaga Nasional fell 32 sen to RM13.94 while Public Bank dropped 32 sen to RM22.46 and Hong Leong Bank slid 80 sen to RM17.66. Combined, the three counters shaved 7.5 points off the 30-stock index.
Also facing downwards pressure, Axiata dropped 12 sen to RM4.25, MISC fell 15 sen to RM5.95 and Sime Darby Plantation
lost 11 sen to RM5.34.
Amid the turmoil, plantation counters attracted buying interest. KL Kepong rose 24 sen to RM23.78, PPB put on 18 sen to RM19.42 and IOI rose four sen to RM4.61.
On the broader market, BAT took off 88 sen to RM35.78, while Carlsberg lost 24 sen to RM19.60.
Oil prices came under pressure ahead of Friday's Opec meeting that is expected to see members vote in favour of a small rise in crude output.
WTI crude dropped 21 cents to US$65.50 a barrel while Brent crude fell 41 cents to US$74.33 a barrel.
In currencies, the ringgit slipped 0.17% against the greenback to 4.0122. It also slipped 0.16% against the pound sterling to 5.2783 but strengthened 0.08% against the Singapore dollar at 2.9458.
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