Genting slumped 15 sen to RM6.80 and erased 1.01 points while GentingM was down three sen to RM3.25 following the recent corporate news which were viewed as negative by investors.
KUALA LUMPUR: Weak Chinese economic data put a crimp in investor sentiment and ended hopes of an extended rally in global equity markets.
China's Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for December fell to 49.7 from 50.2 in November, the first contraction since May 2017, and followed a raft of soft trade data from the Asian region.
Shanghai's Composite Index shaved 1% by noon, leading regional markets into the red.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was 18.24 points lower at 1,672.34. Trading volume was 1.07 billion shares valued at RM423.09mil. There were 440 decliners versus 213 gainers and 259 counters unchanged.
Twenty-four of the 30 KLCI counters were in the red, led by Sime Darby Plantation losing 18 sen to RM4.58 and Maybank dropping 10 sen to RM9.40.
Other leading laggards were Petronas Chemicals shaving nine sen to RM9.20, Petronas Gas falling 50 sen to RM18.70 and Axiata shedding 11 sen to RM3.82.
On the advancing end, Nestle gained 60 sen to RM148, Maxis lifted four sen to RM5.39, RHB climbed five sen to RM5.34 and Hap Seng edged one sen higher to RM9.86.
Most active counters were Datasonic declining two sen to 38.5 sen, MyEG losing 3.5 sen to 94 sen and Prestariang shedding 0.5 sen to 46 sen.
The data that pointed to a factory slowdown in China pointed to weakening demand for crude, adding to fears of a supply glut.
US crude fell 50 cents to US$44.91 a barrel while Brent crude dropped 67 cents to US$53.13 a barrel.
In currencies, the ringgit was 0.1% lower against the US dollar at 4.1390. It also fell 0.2% against the pound sterling to 5.2703 and rose 0.1% against the Singapore dollar at 3.0304
