KLCI brought lower by global recession fears, oil prices skid 2%

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia fell in Wednesday morning trade on the heels of Wall Street's sharp retreat overnight as the relief over the trade truce gave way to a flattening US Treasury yield curve, sparking recession fears.

Compounding the bearish sentiment, despite the three-month truce on trade tariffs observers are now doubting the ability of the US and China to come to a trade deal that will diffuse further tax hikes.

Oil prices skidded along with global equities as growth risks threatened to derail demand for the commodity. WTI crude fell 92 cents to US$52.33 a barrel while Brent crude dropped US$1.19 to US$60.89 a barrel.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was 9.26 points lower at 1,685.73. Turnover was 1.06 billion shares valued at RM675.55mil. There were 497 decliners and 181 gainers with 293 counters unchanged. 

Tenaga Nasional dropped 24 sen to RM13.90 to mark the biggest slide on the index. Maxis followed with a 13 sen slip to RM5.37 and Axiata fell eight sen to RM3.87.

Among gainers, Petronas Gas lifted with a 14 sen climb to RM19.44 and Petronas Chemicals gained three sen to RM9.18.

Making its market debut, Techbond surged 21.5 sen to 87.5 sen to become the second most actively traded stock in morning trade.

Bumi Armada was the most active stock, losing one sen to 16 sen.

Consumer stocks, meanwhile, saw selling pressure with F&N losgin 22 sen to RM32.98, QL Resources dropping 21 sen to RM6.69 and Heineken falling 20 sen to RM20.

In currencies, the ringgit fell 0.3% against the US dollar at 4.1580. It rose 0.5% against the pound sterling at 5.2759 and gained 0.1% against the Singapore dollar at 3.0390.