KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia was hammered down for yet another day with over 900 stocks falling into the red as conditions for equity investment continued to sour.
Global equities have come under intense selling pressure following the release of US economic data that pointed to a resurgence in inflation, while the incoming Trump administration's proposed trade tariffs could lead to further price increases.
Meanwhile, proposed restrictions on US AI chip exports to Malaysia continue to weigh on the technology sector's outlook, especially with regards to the country's AI ambitions.
After a promising start on Wednesday, the FBM KLCI failed to hold on to an early lead and succumbed to selling pressure
At midday, Malaysia's benchmark stock index had shaved 12.79 points to 1,563.67.
The broader market, meanwhile, registered a whopping 919 decliners compared to just 147 gainers.
Turnover for the morning session was 2.2 billion shares changing hands for RM1.56bil.
On the blue-chip index, Gamuda fell 18 sne to RM4.54, Tenaga Nasional dropped 32 sen to RM13.50 and Telekom Malaysia shaved 14 sen to RM6.45.
Banks were mixed with CIMB dropping 10 sen to RM7.87 and Maybank losing six sen to RM10.14, although RHB picked up six sen to RM6.33 and Hong Leong Bank rose 10 sen to RM20.
Of actives, EA Holdings
was flat at 0.5 sen, MYEG dropped 3.5 sen to 90 sen and YTL shed three sen to RM2.15.
In Asian markets, China's composite index was down 0.25% to 3,232 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.23% to 19,264.
Japan's Nikkei was nearly flat at 38,462 while Singapore's Straits Times dropped 0.46% to 3,771.
