KUALA LUMPUR (June 12): The FBM KLCI pared nearly half of its losses at mid-morning today after having earlier gone down with a 3% fall at the opening bell, tracking the tumble at regional markets following the overnight plunge at Wall Street.

However, the benchmark was still set for a week-on-week loss.

At 10am, the FBM KLCI was down 27.46 points to 1,529.79. The index had earlier fallen as much as 3.1% to a low of 1,509.16.

Market breadth was broadly negative as losers thumped gainers by 944 to 102, while 190 counters traded unchanged. Trading volume was 3.13 billion shares valued at RM1.62 billion.

The top losers included Nestle (M) Bhd, Dutch Lady Milk Industries Bhd, Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd, Kossan Rubber Industries Bhd, Malayan Banking Bhd, PPB Group Bhd, Bintulu Port Holdings Bhd, Apex Healthcare Bhd and Can-One Bhd.

The actives included Lambo Group Bhd, AT Systematization Bhd, Pegasus Heights Bhd, Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd, KNM Group Bhd, Comfort Gloves Bhd, Velesto Energy Bhd and Bumi Armada Bhd.

The gainers included Time dotCom Bhd, Datasonic Group Bhd and Malaysia-listed Hang Seng Index-linked put warrants.

Bloomberg said Asian stocks slumped today after a rout on Wall Street triggered by concerns the epic rally since March was excessive given the emergence of a second wave of infections in some locations.

Hong Leong IB Research said tracking overnight slumps on Wall Street and oil prices, KLCI is likely to engage in further profit-taking consolidation after rallying 28.9% from Covid-19 bottom of 1,208.

"On virus news, the concern of surging numbers of [Covid-19] cases in the US and developing regions with shaky health systems could undermine efforts to halt the pandemic and revive trading interests on gloves and other Covid-19 winners," it said.