KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia was hammered on Monday with the ticker board scoring over a thousand counters in the red as a surge in crude oil prices put investors into panic mode.
As Brent crude ratcheted higher to nearly US$120 a barrel amid the oil supply disruption in the escalating Middle East war, observers expect the resulting inflationary pressure to send interest rates back up.
The FBM KLCI fell to a low of 1,664 in intramorning trade as markets across Asia experienced cascading losses to multi-month lows.
As at the midday break, Malaysia's benchmark index plunged 41.12 points or 2.45% to 1,675.94, to its lowest level in two months.
Only the energy and plantations sectors were spared the market rout as traders rushed into the beneficiaries of rising energy prices.
Financial services dove 2.86% with heavyweight banks leading the decline. Maybank dropped 34 sen to RM11.42, CIMB shed 23 sen to RM7.74 and Public Bank lost 12 sen to RM4.75.
Amid the selling frenzy, market volume breached the three billion shares mark at 3.37 billion, while trading value hit RM3.04bil. There were 1,138 losing counters as compared to just 263 gainers and 229 unchanged, reflecting an overwhelmingly negative sentiment on the Exchange.
The equities rout was even more pronounced in major regional markets. Japan's Nikkei slumped 6.77% to 51,854 and the Kospi skidded 8% to 5,137, triggering the market's second circuit breaker in four sessions.
China's Shanghai Composite index slipped 1.13% to 4,077 while the CSI 300 lost 1.65$ to 4,583. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 2.55% to 25,101.
In Taiwan, the Taiex plunged 4.95% to 31,932 and Singapore's Straits Times dropped 2.7% to 4,717.
