KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips fell in early Friday trade with banks and plantation stocks among the losers amid a weaker broader market but MMC Corp and its call warrants dominated the top gainers list.
At 9.40am, the FBM KLCI was down by 12.29 points or 0.77% to 1,578.28. Turnover was 1.62 billion shares valued at RM605.84mil. There were 239 gainers, 433 losers and 332 counters unchanged.
Asian stocks followed Wall Street lower on Friday as signs of a strengthening US recovery boosted bets for higher inflation and an earlier tapering of Federal Reserve stimulus, Reuters reported.
Japan's Nikkei fell 0.8% early in the Asian session, while MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was off 0.3%. Chinese blue chips slipped about 0.1% at the open.
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