Oil war, Covid-19 batter Bursa as KLCI hits lowest since Nov 2011

At Bursa, oil and gas stocks were battered by the price war, prompting Bursa Malaysia to suspend the short-selling of the counters.

KUALA LUMPUR: As markets struggled to cope with the fallout from the Covid-19 coronavirus, the oil war unleashed by Saudi Arabia sent markets in Europe to Asia and Malaysia reeling.

At 5pm, the FBM KLCI was down 58.94 points or 3.97% to 1,424.16. This was the lowest since November 2011. The KLCI is down 10.17% year-to-date.

Turnover surged to 6.66 billion shares valued at RM3.62bil. Decliners hammered advancers 1,201 to 139 and 127 counters unchanged.

At Bursa, oil and gas stocks were battered by the price war, prompting Bursa Malaysia to suspend the short-selling of the counters.

Market sentiment was already hammered by the volatile political situation caused by the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan government and the Covid-19 and prior to that, the trade war launched by the US against China.

US light crude oil price tumbled 22% or US$9.08 to US$32.20 while Brent lost 20.41% or US$9.24 to US$36.03.

Bloomberg reported European equities plunged the most since 2016, putting them on course to enter a bear market, as a price war in oil dealt a new blow to a global economy already grappling with Covid-19.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index plunged 6.6% as of 8:25 a.m. in London, even though some heavyweight members had not yet opened, taking its slide since a Feb. 19 record to 21%.

Energy shares plummeted after the dramatic collapse of talks between Opec and Russia prompted Saudi Arabia to launch a price war.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 tumbled 5.07%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index 4.23%, Taiwan's Taiex 3.04%, South Korea's Kospi 4.19% and Singapore's Straits Times Index 7.63%.

At Bursa, Petronas Chemicals fell RM1.25 to RM4.40 and erased 17.91 points from the KLCI, MISC lost 75 sen to RM6.65 and wiped out nearly six points, Dialog 26 sen to RM3.03, Petronas Dagangan RM1.18 to RM20.90 and Petronas Gas 44 sen to RM15.70.

Sapura Energy tumbled 5.5 sen to 10.5 sen with 565 million shares done, Velesto nearly halved 14.5 sen to 15.5 sen, Bumi Armada 12 sen to 16 sen, Hibiscus Petroleum 30 sen to 41 sen and Perdana 18 sen to 15 sen.

Banks, as proxy to the economy, also came under selling pressure. Maybank lost 26 sen to RM8.24 and wiped out 5.23 points, Public Bank 64 sen to RM17.02 and erased 4.44 points, CIMB 24 sen to RM4.20 and erased 4.26 points.

RHB Bank fell 23 sen to RM5.47 and erased 1.65 points, HL Bank 38 sen to RM15.16 while AmBank was down nine sen to RM3.60.

Crude palm oil also tumbled, down RM171 to RM2,280 per tonne. Sime Plantations fell 47 sen to RM4.40 and wiped out 5.79 points, KL Kepong RM20.94, IOI Corp 22 sen to RM3.94, PPB Group four sen to RM17.70.