KLCI tumbles amid global equity selloff, oil prices retreat

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia joined an Asian bloodbath on Monday as investors sold off equities amid worries over an impending US recession and plunging global yields.

Economic data showing slowing growth in the US manufacturing and services sectors sent 10-year treasury yields below their three-month rate for the first time since 2007, signalling a possible recession.

Last Friday, major Wall Street indices recorded their biggest one-day percentage losses since Jan 3 with the Dow Jones sliding 1.8%, the S&P500 falling 1.9% and the Nasdaq sliding 2.5%.

At 9.10am, the FBM KLCI fell 16.53 points to 1,650.13. Trading volume was 216.33 million shares valued at RM96.91mil. There were 340 decliners versus 48 gainers and 157 counters unchanged.

Leading the sharp fall on the KLCI was Petronas Gas dropping 26 sen to RM17.60, Hong Leong Bank shaving 16 sen to RM20.24 and Maxis sliding 16 sen to RM5.40.

Most active counters were Sapura Energy sliding 0.5 sen to 34 sen, PUB trading unchanged at 9.5 sen and MyEG slipping three sen to RM1.36.

Among early opening markets, Japan's Nikkei plunged 2.9%, Australia's ASX200 dropped 1.2% and South Korea's Kospi fell 1.6%.

Leading the decline in Southeast Asia, Singapore's Straits Times Index dropped 1.5%.

Oil markets were also rocked by fears of a recession. US crude fell 65 cents to US$58.39 a barrel and Brent crude shed 61 cents to US$66.42 a barrel.

Investors flocked to safe haven currencies, pushing the ringgit 0.2% lower agains the greenback at 4.0730. The local currency fell 0.9% against the pound sterling at 5.3714 and 0.1% against the Singapore dollar at 3.0106.