Even an assurance by US treasury secretary Janet Yellen that deposits remained safe in the banks failed to reassure investors.
On Bursa Malaysia, the benchmark FBMKLCI lost 11.28 points to end the day at 1,399.70 points from yesterday’s close of 1,410.98.
The last time the index fell below the 1,400 level was last week.
The market bellwether had begun the day at 1,411.13 points, just 0.15 of a point above yesterday’s close. It hit an intraday high of 1,411.67 points.
Decliners outnumber gainers 496 to 399 on the broader market. A total of 440 counters were unchanged, 998 were not traded and 11 others were suspended.
Turnover fell to 2.99 billion units worth RM1.91 billion from yesterday’s 3.26 billion units worth RM2.03 billion.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said that while the banking crisis in the west would have very little impact on Malaysia given that it is highly regulated, global uncertainty and regional conditions could keep investors nervous in the short term.
Regionally, Singapore’s Straits Times Index slid 0.2% to 3,212.64, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index decreased 0.67% to 19,915.68, Japan’s Nikkei 225 eased 0.13% to 27,385.25 and China’s SSE Composite Index slipped 0.64% to 3,265.65.
Among Bursa heavyweights, MISC rose three sen to RM7.19, Maybank depreciated six sen to RM8.43, Public Bank shed five sen to RM3.90, while CIMB and TNB slipped two sen each to RM5.19 and RM9.54 respectively.
Among the actives, Dagang NeXchange went up three sen to 59 sen, AT Systematization was flat at one sen, Revenue Group declined 2.5 sen to 27.5 sen, Computer Forms sank 7.5 sen to 27.5 sen, and Top Glove slid 6.5 sen to 95.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index lost 78.87 points to 10,258.18, the FBMT 100 Index decreased 77.34 points to 9,951.83 and the FBM 70 Index declined 91.46 points to 13,297.72.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index went down 71.33 points to 10,599.21, and the FBM ACE Index dropped 10.83 points to 5,303.82.
Sector-wise, the financial services index dipped 116.63 points to 15,449.52, the energy index fell 8.37 points to 802.88, the plantation index shaved off 55.58 points to 6,713.93, and the industrial products and services index gave up 1.63 points to 165.54.
The Main Market volume dwindled to 1.89 billion shares worth RM1.64 billion against 2.28 billion shares worth RM1.76 billion yesterday.
Warrants turnover narrowed to 415.85 million units worth RM51.81 million from 433.61 million units worth RM73.54 million yesterday.
The ACE Market volume expanded to 676.06 million shares worth RM216.94 million from 546.78 million shares worth RM189.56 million previously.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 245.12 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (432.20 million); construction (39.84 million); technology (440.29 million); SPAC (nil), financial services (80.36 million); property (133.95 million); plantation (31.56 million); REITs (7.05 million), closed/fund (900); energy (915.03 million); healthcare (280.27 million); telecommunications and media (61.95 million); transportation and logistics (25.19 million); and utilities (22.54 million).