KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia was a sea of red on Tuesday with over a thousand counters falling into negative territory as investors reacted to the looming implementation of US tariffs in North America and China.
Amid the sharp and broad-based pullback, the blue-chip FBM KLCI dropped 13.76 points to 1,557.63 at midday, marking a fresh one-month low as investors pulled out of risky assets amid the tax threat to the global economy.
The consumer sector was among the hardest-hit, with Nestle plunging RM2.62 to RM77.50. Dutch Lady
dropped 98 sen to RM27.52 and F&N shed 82 sen to RM24.80.
Energy and utility counters were also sold down, with YTL Power falling 11 sen to RM2.99, PETRONAS Dagangan sliding 12 sen to RM18.58 and PETRONAS Chemicals shedding nine sen to RMRM3.71.
In banks, Hong Leong Bank fell 22 sen to RM20.98, Maybank dropped 10 sen to RM10.58 and RHB Bank slid five sen to RM6.86.
Turnover on the local market was 2.57 billion shares changing hands for RM1.61bil.
Of actives, Ingenieur was flat at 3.5 sen, Genting Malaysia fell 10 sen to RM1.80 and Velesto dipped 1.5 sen to 15.5 sen.
In Asian markets, stocks were beaten down by the negative sentiment. Japan's Nikkei shed 2% to 37,046.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.46% to 22,901 and Singapore's Straits Times dropped 0.39% to 3,893,
China's composite index was unchanged at 3,316.
