KUALA LUMPUR: Asian markets slid further on the combined sentiment over China's slowing economy and Turkey's financial crisis although news of Beijing holding trade talks with Washington later this month helped pare losses.
Japan's Nikkei fell by a slight 0.05% to 22,192.04, Shanghai's Composite Index dropped 0.66% to 2,705.19 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng slid 0.82% to 27,100.06.
Back home, the FBM KLCI ended the day 8.67 points or 0.48% lower to 1,777.27. Trading volume was 2.1 billion shares valued at RM1.91bil. There were 591 decliners versus 302 advancers and 438 counters unchanged.
Telcos led the losses on the index with Axiata losing nine sen to RM4.29 and Maxis trimming eight sen to RM5.66.
Petronas Gas was down 28 sen to RM18.38 while Petronas Chemicals sliped six sen to RM9.24.
Only three counters showed advances in their share price. MAHB added 21 sen to RM9.35, Nestle climbed 90 sen to RM147 and PPB rose six sen to RM16.96.
On the broader market, JF Technology added 15.5 sen to 92.5 sen, DKLS rose 14 sen to RM1.81 and Hengyuan gained 13 sen to RM7.29.
Leading decliners, BAT shed 66 sen to RM35.34, Heineken slid 32 sen to RM22.12 and Scientex lost 21 sen to RM8.19.
News that Beijing would send a delegation to Washington in an attempt to resolve the trade dispute gave improved sentiment in oil markets.
WTI crude rose two cents to US$65.03 a barrel while Brent crude gained six cents to US$70.82 a barrel.
In currencies, the ringgit was little changed against the greenback at 4.1025, and similarly steady against the pound sterling at 5.2138. It weakened 0.26% against the Singapore dollar at 2.9811.
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