KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips fell sharply in early Wednesday trade, with profit taking seen in Public Bank and Genting Bhd
, as investors took money off the table following the overnight slide on Wall Street.
At 9.05am, the FBM KLCI was down 18.58 points or 1.09% to1,683.54. Turnover was 42.21 million shares valued at RM42.21mil. There were 69 gainers, 202 losers and 148 counters unchanged.
Asian stocks edged down on mounting signs of slowing global growth and anxiety over a yet-unresolved China-US trade dispute, Reuters reported.
Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.7% while MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.1%.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500, the Nasdaq and the Dow all posted their biggest one-day percentage drops since Jan 3 on Tuesday. The S&P lost 1.42%.
At Bursa, Public Bank gave up all its last-minute gains from the previous day, falling 32 sen to RM24.86 while Hong Leong Bank fell 16 sen to RM20.54 with 100 shares done. LPI lost 16 sen also to RM16.10.
Petronas Dagangan fell 68 sen to RM25.32, KL Kepong 40 sen to RM24.20 and Genting Bhd 17 sen yo RM6.76.
Mesiniaga jumped 39 sen to RM1.89 – after hitting limit-up the previous day – as investors chased the company after it secured a RM1.9bil contract.
Petronas Gas gained 14 sen to RM17.76 and Paramount five sen to RM2.20.
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