KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI slid further in morning trade as Tenaga Nasional weighed down the index on talk of the government studying a proposal to liberalise the energy sector.
Tenaga plunged 56 cents to RM13.58, on a day where stocks on Bursa Malaysia experienced a broad-based retreat.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 8.67 points to 1,678.81. There were 1.52 billion shares traded valued at RM774.42mil. Decliners outpaced gainers 439 to 266 and 375 counters were unchanged.
Other heavyweights seeing losses included Axiata dropping six sen to RM5.20 and Maxis shaving five sen to RM5.65.
MOst actively traded counters on the stock exchange included KNM adding two sen to 32 sen, Green Packet rising one sen to 39 sen and Iris gaining 0.5 sen to 15 sen.
Other Asian markets were mixed on Friday as US employment data was due out later today, offering direction over whether the US Federal Reserve will embark on aggressive monetary easing.
The Shanghai COmposite Index slipped 0.2% while the CSI300 Index eked out a 0.1% gain.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index and Japan's Nikkei Index were also up 0.1% apiece and South Korea's Kospi Index was flat.
Meanwhile, US crude oil prices fell 55 cents to US$56.79 a barrel on concerns over the outlook for global economic growth.
The US Energy Information Administration on Wednesday reported a weekly decline of 1.1 million barrels in crude stocks, much smaller than the 5 million barrel draw reported by the American Petroleum Institute earlier in the week
Brent crude managed to eke out a gain of three cents to US$63.33 a barrel as Opec supply cuts helped to support sentiment.
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