KUALA LUMPUR, June 12 ― Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session broadly lower across the board, tracking the overnight rout on Wall Street due to rising fears of a resurgence of Covid-19 infections and sluggish economic outlook by the United States' Federal Reserve.

At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 20.82 points at 1,536.43 from yesterday’s close of 1,557.25.

The index opened 44.86 points lower at 1,512.39 and hovered between 1,509.16 and 1,536.91  throughout the early trading session.

On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers by 903 versus 169, while 274 counters were unchanged, 563 untraded and 20 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 5.20 billion units worth RM2.86 billion.

A dealer said Bursa Malaysia opened sharply lower today, taking the cue from US markets which tumbled to its biggest daily decline since March 2020 (-6.9 per cent) as investors turned risk-off mode amid the pace of future economic recovery prospects.

However, the local bourse pared its losses, came off its lows today after the mid-morning buying on selected heavyweights, particularly Top Glove following its sterling performance in the third quarter this year, he said.

AxiCorp global chief market strategist Stephen Innes said Asian stocks looked set to sink further after the US equities declined the most in 12 weeks, as worries over a jump in coronavirus cases added to concern that the recent rally had gone too far.

"US equities were sharply lower yesterday with S&P 500 down, a frightening 5.9 per cent following similar losses through Europe and Asia.

"The spikes in virus infection rates in the US after reopening measures, early in May spooked the pants off global investors,” he added.

Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei shed 0.76 per cent to 22,301.10, Singapore's Straits Times slipped 1.49 per cent to 2,663.95 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1.30 per cent to 24,162.78.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank fell 17 sen to RM7.91, Tenaga shed six sen to RM11.90, Public Bank dropped 44 sen to RM16.80, Petronas Chemicals reduced 20 sen at RM6.50 and IHH Healthcare eased three sen to RM5.47.

Of the most active, AT Systematization slid one sen to 13.5 sen, Lambo eased half-a-sen to two sen, Connectcounty edged up six sen to 36 sen, Luster Industries added one sen to 12.5 sen while Pegasus and its warrant were flat at one sen and half-a-sen respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index slipped 155.59 points to 10,806.12, the FBMT 100 Index fell 151.52 points to 10,669.65 and the FBM 70 tumbled 217.29 points to 13,303.01.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 115.35 points to 12,258.65 and the FBM ACE decreased 81.21 points to 5,755.30.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 2.65 points to 135.46,  the Plantation Index slipped 70.44 points to 6,742.10 and the Financial Services Index dropped 287.14 points to 13,360.20. ― Bernama