KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia remained in profit-taking mode as an AI-driven sell-off in Asian markets sent traders fleeing to safety.
The benchmark FBM KLCI was down 7.09 points to 1,735.73 as the market halted for the lunch break.
However, the market pullback was more evident in the broader market as declining issues overwhelmed advancing at a ratio of 3.4-to-1.
The technology sector was routed, losing 4.27% amid a global sell-off in tech shares as questions are raised over AI's impact on the broader technology space. Meanhile, domestic traders sought out defensive plays in financial services and REITs, which were the only two positive sectors on Bursa Malaysia.
Trading volume was RM2.27 billion shares valued at RM1.74bil.
Among hard-hit tech stocks, Vitrox fell 24 sen to RM4.04, UWC shed 20 sen to RM4.09, Unisem dropped 16 sen to RM2.90 and Itmax fell 14 sen to RM4.92.
Zetrix AI, topping the list of actively traded counters with 188.81 million shares done, slumped 9.5 sen to 70.5 sen.
Elsewhere in the region, South Korea's Kospi fell 3.37% to 5,190 amid sharp falls in Samsung Electornics and SK Hynix.
Taiwan's Taiex dropped 1.33% to 31,859. Its largest constituent with over 40% total market value, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, shaved 1.12% off its share price to settle at TWD1,765
Japan's Nikkei lost 1% to 53,786. China's Shanghai Composte index also dropped 1% to 4,061 and its blue-chip CSI300 slid 0.92% to 4,655.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.19% to 26,527.
