Following yesterday's late afternoon dive, the FBM KLCI was seen growing weaker as investors grew nervous over overheated rubber glove stocks, which have been the focus of investor attention during the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak.
Leading rubber glove maker Top Glove fell another 92 sen on Wednesday to RM22.24, while Hartalega
shed 88 sen to RM16.12, to shave off over seven points from the heavyweight index.Non-index-linked manufacturers were also seen losing momentum with Supermax sliding 78 sen to RM15.12 and Kossan dropping 70 sen to RM12.80.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 3.53 points to 1,595.22, as an advance in certain bank counters partially offset the losses in rubber gloves.
Maybank grew seven sen to RM7.93 while Hong Leong Bank rose 40 sen to RM15.20.
Trading volume on the market held firm at 4.22 billion shares valued at RM2.79bil. Market breadth was quite even with gainers outpacing lagards 469 to 408.
Fresh geopolitical tensions threatened to pour cold water over equities markets in Asia as US President Donald Trump announced a withdrawal of preferential treatment for Hong Kong following Beijing's move to impose a new security law on the island city.
The US President also said he had no plans to resume trade talks with China at the present time.
China's composite index pulled back 1.4% on the news while Hong Kong's Hang Seng retreated 0.5%.
Japan's Nikkei however rose 1.3% while South Korea's Kosi climbed 0.8%.
On the forex market, the ringgit was 0.1% stronger against the greenback at 4.2630. It dipped 0.1% against the pound serling at 5.3594 and was flat against the Singapore dollar at 3.0638.