KUALA LUMPUR: A broad selloff in global equities continued on Tuesday as Wall Street plunged for a second straight session amid evidence of slowing economic growth, sending investors to the sidelines.
Rattling hopes of a December boost to retailers, UK online clothing retailer Asos issued a profit warning overnight, triggering a selldown in US consumer discretionary stocks.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI dropped 7.52 points to 1,628.47. Turnover was 1.27 billion shares valued at RM772.82mil. The stock exchange experienced a broad-based selloff with 642 decliners versus 145 gainers and 237 counters unchanged.
The top losers on the benchmark index were Tenaga Nasional, sliding 32 to RM12.60, IHH falling 18 sen to RM5.17 and Sime Darby Plantation
dropping 10 sen to RM4.20.
On the rising end, Digi gained 13 sen to RM4.32, Public Bank rose 10 sen to RM24.32 and IOI advanced six sen to RM4.24.
Among the top gainers on the wider market, BAT added 48 se to RM35.18, Ceptwawasan jumped 20.5 sen to 75.5 sen and MAHB grew 13 sen to RM4.32.
Meanwhile, Dutch Lady weighd 40 sen to RM61.90, F&N fell 24 sen to RM30.26 and Hai-O dropped 23 sen to RM3.67.
VS Industry was the top active counter in the morning session as its share price resumed its fall. It plummeted 12.5 sen to 69.5 sen after having hit limit down in the previous session.
Oversupply concerns continued to rock oil markets, sending them down for a third straight session.
WTI crude fell 67 cents to US$49.21 a barrel while Brent crude slid 80 cents to US$58.81 a barrel.
In currencies, the ringgit was little changed against the greenback at 4.1770. It was down 0.1% against the pound sterling at 5.2745 and Singapore dollar at 3.0485.
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