KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia fell in early morning trade as the global rout in tech stocks coupled with signs of a slowing labour market in the US sapped risk appetite for equities.
Overnight, Wall Street extended its fall with the three major indices marking losses of 1.2% to 1.59% each.
"Global sentiment remains cautious as signs of labour market softening in the US, including 108,435 layoffs announced in January and job openings falling to their lowest level since 2020, have reinforced expectations of potential Fed rate cuts, while the ongoing tech sell-off tied to AI valuation concerns continues to drive equity volatility," said Apex Research in its market review.
"This has spilled into regional markets and weighed on local sentiment, prompting sector rotation and profit-taking following the recent rally, with selling seen across utilities, industrials, healthcare, construction and energy, while financials remain relatively resilient and selective yield plays provide some support."
The research firm said the FBM KLCI is expected to be range-bound with the 1,730 level likely to serve as a near-term psychological anchor.
At 9.08am, the FBM KLCI had dropped 4.03 points to 1,726.99, led by a fall in Press Metal
, down six sen to RM7.45, PPB down 12 sen to RM10.90 and MISC shedding 12 sen to RM8.
Maybank, favoured as a defensive play amid the turmoil in recent days, gave up four sen to RM11.90.
Meanwhile, Hi Mobility leapt 11 sen to RM2.31 on the back of news it had been hired to operate intracity bus services in Johor for RM78.2mil.
Making its debut on the ACE Market, Penang-based precision engineering services provider AmBest traded 7.5 sen higher than its initial public offering price at 32.5 sen after 68.1 million shares crossed, topping the day's most active counters.
Zetrix AI was also heavily traded with 44.47 million shares done, slumping 5.5 sen to 64 sen. MMAG was unchanged at five sen after 23.69 million shares done.
