Global sell-off leads KLCI to fourth day of declines

KUALA LUMPUR: Tech and semiconductor stocks led the route on the Malaysian market as the bears wreaked havoc on global equities.

Wall Street's sharp selldown overnight, which led to the Dow Jones and S&P500 turning negative for the year and the Nasdaq entering correction territory, reverberated across Asia and sent markets plunging.

Malaysian Pacific Industries was the most hard hit, falling RM1.02 to RM11.46 while KESM dropped 60 sen to RM10.38.

In related counters, Pentamaster shed 34 sen to RM3.08, Vitrox slid 32 sen to RM7.36, MI Equipment fell 12 sen to RM2.22 and Elsoft weighed 15 sen to RM2.98.

Inari Amertron fell for the third straight session, losing another 25 sen to RM1.80.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KCLI was down 13.95 points at 1,676.09. There were 1.28 billion shares traded valued at RM1.14bil. There were eight decliners to every advancing share, 818 to 97 while 227 counters remained unchanged.

CIMB continued to face downwards pressure, shaving off 14 sn to RM5.56. Genting fell 19 sen to RM7.21 while Petronas Chemicals trimmed 10 sen to RM9.24 and IHH lost seven sen to RM4.81.

Few stocks on the KLCI stood up to the bloodshed, with Axiata rising three sen to RM3.36 after Monday's heavy selling. KLCC Property REIT addd three sen to RM7.57 while MISC gained eight sen to RM5.96.

Tenaga Nasional recovered some of the week's losses, climbing 12 sen to RM14.02.

Topping the list of most active counters, Hibiscus Petroleum dropped four sen to RM1.08. My EG was also sold down eight sen to RM1.24 while Frontken dove seven sen to 81.5 sen.

The steep sell-off in global stocks awoke fears of slowing global demand for crude. WTI crude fell 54 cents to US$66.28 a barrel while Brent crude dropped 51 cents to US$75.66 a barrel.

In currencies, the ringgit extended further losses against the greenback, slipping 0.1% to 4.1715. It rose 0.2% against the pound sterling at 5.3763 and slipped 0.1% to 3.0215.