KUALA LUMPUR: The selling on Bursa Malaysia accelerated on Friday as investors took money off the table amid an absence of fresh catalysts.
At 12.30pm, the benchmark index was down 11.99 points to 1,659.33, putting the index on track to its lowest close in two weeks.
YTL Power was seen dragging on the FBM KLCI, after diving 21 sen to RM3.62. Parent company YTL Corp was down six sen to RM2.51.
Maybank, meanwhile, continued to trim gains, losing eight sen to RM10.58, while sector peers Public Bank dropped 10 sen to RM4.57 and CIMB shaved four sen to RM8.24.
On the broader market, the selling of lower liners saw a negative breadth of 597 decliners compared to 349 gainers.
By the end of the early session, 1.82 billion shares had changed hands for RM1.23bil.
Of actives, Lambo dropped 1.5 sen to one sen, Sapura Energy
was unchanged at four sen and JKG land rose 1.5 sen to 12 sen.
As the domestic market chalks up a dismal performance, the rally in key regional markets remained in play.
China's composite index surged 2.14% to 3,065, propped by up the recent announcement of stimulus measures, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng similarly jumped 3.5% to 20,621.
Japan's Nikkei gained 0.86% to 39,260 while Singapore's Straits Times Index slipped 0.44% to 3,566.
