Bursa, Asian markets slide on political uncertainty in Washington

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia tracked Wall Streets sharp decline on Christmas Eve, amid a cloud of political uncertainty in Washington.

US President Donald Trump's hostility towards his own central bank and the US government shutdown has left investors feeling apprehensive over global economic growth.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.1%

Japan's Nikkei bounced 1.8% after diving 5% the previous day to a 20-month low and slipping into bear market territory.

At 9.05am, the FBM KLCI was down 12.39 points to 1,671.43. Trading volume was 90.77 million shares valued at RM32.61mil. There were 247 decliners versus 38 advancers and 103 counters unchanged.

Among the most actively traded counters, Red Sena gained 0.5 sen to 49.5 sen, Sapura Energy lost one sen to 30.5 sen and Vivocom was unchanged at two sen.

Top gainers were led by Open rising 10 sen to 65 sen, DKSH climbing seven sen to RM2.32 and Unisem advancing six sen to RM3.28.

Some KLCI heavyweights topped the list of laggards, including Hong Leong Bank falling 24 sen to RM20.04, Tenaga Nasional sliding 22 sen to RM13.78 and Public Bank dropping 14 sen to RM24.64.

In commodities, US crude futures rose 71 cents to US$43.24 a barrel following a 6.7% slide on Monday. Brent crude was up 19 cents to US$50.66 a barrel.