KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia slid in Tuesday's morning session following US President Donald Trump's announcement of a 10% tariff on US$200bil of Chinese imports.
Markets were mostly lower although Chinese equity held relatively firm given the announced tariff rates were lower than the 25% that the White House was contemplating.
At 12.30pm. the FBM KLCI was down 11.76 points to 1,792. Trading volume was 946.86 million points valued at RM747.88mil. There were 171 advancing counters versus 571 declining and 267 unchanged.
Maybank weighed down the market with a 20 sen slide to RM9.70 while CIMB also fell 20 sen to RM6.03. IHH Healthcare dropped 22 sen to RM5.07. The three counters took a combined 9.3 points off the index.
Other banks were also on the back foot. Public Bank lost two sen to RM24.92 while Hong Leong Bank dropped eight sen to RM20.18 and RHB dipped six sen to RM5.38.
In plantations, Sime Darby Plantation
slipped six sen to RM5.22, while KL Kepong lifted four sen to RM24.92. IOI was unchanged at RM4.54.
In the spotlight, WCT rose six sen to 92 sen following news that it had received a RM1.77bil construction job at Pavilion Damansara Heights.
MI Equipment, which has been on a tear for a third consecutive session, gained 16 sen to RM3.09.
Other top advancing stocks inculde Versatile, surging 14 sen to 56 sen, and SPB jumping 13 sen to RM4.15.
On the losing end, Padini slid 35 sen to RM5.66, BAT lost 38 sen to RM33.36 and LPI fell 20 sen to RM16.80.
Oil markets fell on Tuesday as the latest escalation in the Sino-US trade war clouded the outlook for crude demand from the two countries, which are the world's top two oil consumers, Reuters reported.
WTI crude slid 27 sen to US$68.64 a barrel while Brent crude shed 40 cents to US$77.65 a barrel.
In currencies, the ringgit was up 0.2% against the US dollar at 4.1452. It fell 0.6% against the pound sterling at 5.4540 and 0.4% against the Singapore dollar at 3.0232.
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