KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia skidded on Monday, with over 1,000 stocks in the red, as escalating Middle East tensions pushed oil prices higher and drove investors into safe havens.
The MSCI gauge of emerging Asian equities fell 1.1%, its worst session in about a month, Reuters reported.
Locally, the FBM KLCI tumbled 16.40 points, or 0.96% to 1,700.21, recovering from its intraday low of 1,684.28.
Market breadth turned sharply negative, with losers outnumbering gainers 1,039 to 290 — more than three decliners for every advancer — as selling pressure weighed on the broader market. Trading activity was brisk, with 3.9 billion shares worth RM3.91bil changing hands.
A dealer said investors turned cautious amid heightened geopolitical uncertainty, with broad-based selling seen across most sectors as risk appetite weakened.
However, he noted that oil and gas counters outperformed on the back of the sharp rebound in crude prices, as traders positioned for sustained strength in energy markets.
Among the losers, Nestle tumbled RM3 to RM106.90, Hong Leong Industries slid RM1.18 to RM17.54, F&N lost RM1.04 to RM33.90 and Malaysian Pacific Industries
fell 96 sen to RM31.
Oil and gas counters bucked the broader sell-off, emerging as the session’s top gainers as crude prices surged. Petron Malaysia jumped 44 sen to RM4.59, PETRONAS Chemicals added 39 sen to RM3.39, Hibiscus rose 29 sen to RM1.89 and PETRONAS Dagangan climbed 28 sen to RM22.26.
Reuters reported that oil prices surged about 9% on Monday after shipping through the crucial Strait of Hormuz was disrupted by retaliatory Iranian attacks following earlier strikes by Israel and the United States.
Brent crude jumped 8.92%, or US$6.50, to US$79.37 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose 8.21%, or US$5.50, to US$72.52 per barrel.
On the external front, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.35% to 58,057.24, while South Korea’s Kospi slipped 1% to 6,244.13.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 2.14% to 26,059.85, though mainland Chinese markets bucked the regional weakness, with the CSI300 rising 0.38% to 4,728.67 and the Shanghai Composite gaining 0.47% to 4,182.59.
