The slide comes amid a dash for safe haven assets in the US even as investors turned sour on equities amid fears that corporate earnings may fall on disruptions to Chinese supply chains.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 2.81 points to 1,532.17. Trading volume was 1.5 billion shares valued at RM921.65mil. There were 389 decliners, 319 gainers and 372 counters unchanged.
Stocks were broadly lower across sectors including Petronas Chemicals sliding eight sen to RM6.47, Digi down five sen to RM4.25 and CIMB shedding two sen to RM4.96.
Maxis was one of few gainers on the KLCI following the release of its positive earnings result, rising five sen to RM5.45.
On the broader market, there was a jump in consumer good products amid the decline with BAT rising Rm1.46 to RM14.16 following an improved quarterly earnings result.
Carlsberg climbed 76 sen to RM38.80 while Heineken added 58 sen to RM30.93.
Dutch Lady
rose 62 sen to RM45.24.Crude oil markets were shaken on Friday amid news that South Korea reported 52 new cases of the coronavirus in what authorities called a "super spreading" event.
WTI crude dropped 37 cents to US$53.52 a barrel and Brent crude fell 42 cents to US$58.59 a barrel.
In currencies, the ringgit slid a further 0.2% against the greenback to 4.1900. It dropped 0.3% against the pound sterling to 5,4017 and 0.3% against the Singapore dollar to 2.9924.
