KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI dove into negative territory as fears of contagion from the collapse of two US lenders spread across the region.
While key Asian markets rebounded on US financial regulators' move to support depositors after the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, a US tech startup lender, Bursa Malaysia failed to capitalise on the hopeful news.
At 12.30pm, the bellwether index was down 12.4 points to 1,420.68 while the market breadth was largely negative with 688 decliners compared with 188 gainers.
Trading volume was 2.26 billion shares valued at RM1.13bil.
In China, the composite index was up 0.8% to 3,254 after a sharp bounce higher following its negative opening.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 2.3% to 19,756, and its tech index soared 4.4% to 166.5 on news of the intervention by US officials.
South Korea's Kospi was also slightly up at 2,400 while Japan's Nikkei lagged its peers with a 1.4% retreat to 27,737.
On Bursa Malaysia, the tech index was down 0.6% to 62,02, its lowest since Nov 24, 2022.
Leading losers included D&O down 16 sen to RM4.32, Greatech siding eight sen to RM4.80, KESM shedding 30 sen to RM7.54 and UWC dropping 11 sen to RM3.30.
MPI, one of the rare positives in the sector, bounced up 46 sen to RM28.66.
On the blue chip index, decliners included Tenaga Nasional down seven sen to RM9.31, MISC falling six sen to RM7.19, Axiata shedding six sen to RM3.04 and RHB falling four sen to RM5.61.
Bank fared better than in the early morning hours, as Maybank was up six sen to RM8.46 and CIMB gained four sen to RM5.34.
Public Bank was down one sen to RM4.01 Hong Leong Bank fell two sen to RM4.11 and RHB slipped four sen to RM5.61.
