KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia got off to  a weak start on Thursday with the FBM KLCI falling more than 0.8% as Petronas-linked stocks and Pubic Bank lost ground.

At 9.16am, the KLCI was down 13.63 points or 0.85% to 1,590.11. Turnover was 270.72 million shares valued at RM160.58mil. There were 81 gainers, 328 losers and 171 counters unchanged.

Asian shares were stuck in the red amid worries the China-US trade conflict was fast morphing into a technology cold war between the world's two largest economies, Reuters reported.

Japan's Nikkei slipped 0.5% in early trade, while South Korea lost 0.3%. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.01% to hover just above a 16-week trough. E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 edged down 0.17%.

Kenanga Research said the KLCI was still on a downward trend and there was no technical indicator that shows a potential reversal was at play. 

“From here, continuous global negative news and overall weak investor sentiment will likely see the index head towards its supports at 1,585 (S1) and 1,570 (S2). Conversely, resistance can be identified at 1,630 (R1) and 1,650 (R2) if there is unexpected positive news flow,” it said.

Petronas Gas fell the most, down 54 sen to RM15.98 while Petronas Chemical was down 41 sen to RM8.41.

Velesto fell two sen to 26.5 sen in active trade, Sapura Energy and Barakah lost 1.5 sen each to 29.5 sen and 5.5 sen while Bumi Armada shed 0.5 sen to 18.5 sen.

Public Bank lost 16 sen to RM22.32.

Pos Malaysia fell 11 sen to RM1.47 after posting large losses while UMW gained nine sen to RM5.36.

Vitrox lost 12 sen to RM6.90 and MPI 10 sen to RM9 but Mi added six sen to RM1.66.

BAT rose 62 sen to RM34.06 and Nestle 50 sen to RM146.80.

SAM Engineering gained nine sen to RM8.28 while Top Glove advanced six sen to RM5.11.