KUALA LUMPUR: Regional markets including Bursa Malaysia are taking Wall Street's lead, and dropping in line with overnight comments from the US Federal Reserve that interest rates are expected to remain higher for longer.
At 12.30pm, the benchmark FBM KLCI was down 3.4 points to 1,448.16.
There was on overwhelming dip across the market with 549 decliners compared to 274 gainers.
Trading volume was 1.78 billion shares valued at RM1.07bil.
Among the biggest laggards on the blue-chip index were Sime Darby Plantation
falling 10 sen to Rm4.36, CIMB sliding four sen to RM5.58 and CelcomDigi dipping two sen to RM4.40.
The Bursa Malaysia Technology Index was down 0.25% to 63.14 with declines led by Unisem down five sen to RM3.25, UWC shedding six sen to RM3.75 and KESM slipping five sen to RM7.05.
Top actives on the market included UEM Sunrise down two sen to 89 sen, Top Glove dropping one sne to 82 sne and MQ Tech up 0.5 sen to three sen.
In Asia, China's composite index was down 0.6% to 3,090 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng tumbled 1.3% to 17,651.
Japan's Nikkkei fell 1.3% to 32,606 and South Korea's Kospi dove 1.6% to 2,518.
