KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia was on the backfoot in the morning session with investors staying to the sidelines as a projected Blue Wave in the US midterm elections triggered sell-offs in AI stocks.
Analysts note a Democratic sweep of the US elections could further accelerate selling in the AI space, leading to sharp declines in the tech-heavy regional markets.
In Malaysia, the benchmark FBM KLCI was down 2.42 points to 1,619.43 with leading losses seen in the banking sector.
Maybank dropped seven sen to RM9.97, Hong Leong Bank lost six sen to RM21.28, Public Bank fell three sen to RM4.78 and CIMB shed six sen to RM6.92.
Meanwhile, the broader market was painted red with 534 declining issues compared with 313 gainers. The trading volume was 1.3 billion shares changing hands from RM862.4mil.
In the technology sector, stocks fell 0.47%. Financial services dropped 0.4%, consumer shed 0.21% and construction slid 0.67%.
Energy shares lost 0.69% after Brent crude prices dropped futher to below US$103 a barrel. Oil prices have declined for a third straight day amid hopes peace talks will resume in the Middle East.
The day's most actively traded shares were Aizo unchanged at seven sen, MAG flat at 15.5 sen and GIIB down 7.5 sen to 42 sen.
In regional markets, South Korea's Kospi dove 3.54% to 5,448 as foreign funds reacted to the midterm election vote, which favours a Democrat win.
Japan's Nikkei plunged 4.62% to 60,166 on the same fears that Democrats could impose more stringent regulations on data centre and AI infrastructure projects.
In China, the Shanghai Composite index slipped 0.1% to 3,604, the CSI 300 was flat at 4,010 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was also unchanged at 23,529.
