KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's benchmark stock index continued to lose ground in morning trade in line with a slide in regional markets as a bond sell-off further dampened risk sentiment.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 4.35 points to 1,415.66.
There were 700 decliners compared to 188 gainers, while trading volume was 1.68 billion shares valued at RM1.04bil.
Blue chips were mostly down with Maybank falling three sen to RM8.74, Public Bank shedding two sen to RM4.04 and Hong Leong Bank losing eight sen to RM19.38.
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lost three sen to RM4.77, Maxis fell six sen to RM3.98 and Sime Darby Plantation dropped four sen to RM4.28.
On the broader market, notable laggards included United Plantaion shedding 28 sen to RM16.46, Panasonic falling 24 sen to RM18.50 and F&N dropping 20 sen to RM25.30.
Top actives included KNM up 0.5 sen to 15.5 sen, EMCC flat at 45.5 sen and Widad gaining 0.5 sen to 52.5 sen.
In Japan, the Nikkei dove 2.2% to 30,555 while South Korea's Kospi slid 2.3% to 2,408.
China's mainland markets remained closed for the Golden Week holiday but Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 1% to 17,151.
