KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia took a beating on Monday with 1,151 counters crashing into the red as investors cashed out of the recent run-up in equities prices.
The benchmark FBM KLCI dove 17.24 points to end the early session at 1,619.31, erasing all progress made over the last two weeks.
With heavy selling registered across market sectors, the market saw a morning turnover of 3.57 billion shares changing hands for RM1.9bil.
Among the worst hit was the financial services counters, alongside utilities, energy and property.
Heavyweight banks stepped back, including Maybank down four sen to RM10.06, CIMB falling six se to RM7.09, RHB dropping three sen to RM5.67 and Public Bank sliding two sen to RM4.22.
In plantations, Kuala Lumpur Kepong shaved 42 sen to RM21.08 while SD Guthrie lost two sen to RM4.48.
YTL Power dropped seven sen to RM4.73, Telekom Malaysia slid 13 sen to RM7 and Tenaga Nasional fell four sen to RM14.40.
Of actives, BWYS made its debut on the ACE Market with a 14 sen increase to 36 sen. Sapura Energy
lost 0.5 sen to four sen and Ekovest slid 1.5 sen to 55 sen.
In regional markets, stocks continued to slide although losses were capped by a positive reaction over China's rate cut.
China's composite index slipped 0.71% to 2,961, Japan's Nikkei dropped 1.1% to 39,612 and Singapore's Straits Times was flat at 3,445.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 0.82% to 17,560.
