Rising fears over US attack on Iran drive equities lower
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian equities tumbled in Thursday's early session, in line with the performance of regional markets as fears mounted that the US would enter the Israel-Iran conflict.
At the midday break, the FBM KLCI was down 8.77 points to 1,503.18, taking the index to its lowest point in June as investors sold down heavyweights across industry sectors.
The flight from equities in light of the prospect of an escalation of military action in the Middle East saw broad-based retreat in domestic equities.
Declining issues outweighed advancing at a ratio of nearly 3-to-1 while market turnover stood at 1.81 billion shares for a low value of RM765.06mil.
Leading the sell-off in the blue-chip index, PPB dropped 39 sen to RM9.99, PETRONAS Dagangan dropped 26 sen to RM21.10 and Kuala Lumpur Kepong shed 26 sen to RM19.76.
Meanwhile, reports that US President Donald Trump had privately approved plans to attack Iran further rattled Asian markets.
Japan's Nikkei slipped 0.85% to 38,554.
In China, the blue-chip CSI300 dropped 0.78% to 3,844 while the composite index shed 0.86% to 3,359.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 2.02% to 23,231.
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