Bursa Malaysia fell into negative territory during the early session, with 504 stocks recording losses as global investors turned away from riskier assets amid ongoing turmoil in the Middle East.
By midday, the FBM KLCI had decreased by 3.7 points to 1,635.61, slipping below the 50-day simple moving average, which indicates a strong bearish sentiment prevailing in the market.
Currently, the market bellwether is trading at its lowest level in six weeks, primarily dragged down by YTL Power, which dropped 12 sen to RM3.51, and Tenaga Nasional, which fell 20 sen to RM14.10.
In contrast, the financial services and plantation sectors demonstrated more resilience amidst the downturn. Key banking stocks that remained in positive territory included Hong Leong Bank, which rose six sen to RM21.36, Public Bank, which added two sen to RM4.55, and RHB, gaining five sen to RM6.16.
Among actively traded stocks, OCR declined by one sen to 4.5 sen, Classita remained unchanged at four sen, and Lay Hong slipped 0.5 sen to 39.5 sen.
Overall, market trading volume reached 1.85 billion shares, with a total value of RM1.12 billion exchanged.
