KUALA LUMPUR: Key Asian markets fell between 1.8% to 3.2% at the midday break on May 14 but the Malaysian blue chips was the least affected by the selling following the overnight fall on Wall Street.

Crude palm oil third-month futures fell RM50 to RM2,685 while light crude oil shed 53 cents to US$57.49.

However, Maybank Investment Research advised investors to take profits now in view of the extremely overbought situation and high volumes traded recently. It added a bearish divergence was abundant and a correction phase was imminent.

At midday, the KL Composite Index fell 7.47 points or 0.73% to 1,015.37. Turnover was 1.55 billion shares valued at RM983 million. There were 142 gainers, 499 losers and 161 stocks unchanged.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell the most, down 3.2% to 16,508.08, Singapore’s Straits Times Index lost 2.5% to 2,131.11 while Japan’s Nikkei 225 gave up 2.52% to 9,105.06. Shanghai’s Composite Index lost 1.84% to 2,614.83.

Hwa Tai was the top loser, down 27 sen to 56.5 sen, Quality and Century 14 sen each to RM1.09 and RM1.04.

MAS lost 20 sen to RM3.12, Bursa and IJM 15 sen lower to RM7.05 and RM5.05 while Hume Industries gave up 12 sen to RM2.88.

Scomi was the most active with 90.5 million shares done, down 0.5c to 76.5 sen. Small players in the oil and gas supporting sector saw active trade, with KNM down two sen to 82.5 sen, SAAG 0.5 sen to 38.5 sen but Borneo Oil rose 6.5 sen to 40.5 sen.

Among plantations, UMCCA fell 25 sen to RM6.30, Kulim 15 sen to RM5.90 and Kulim-WB 12 sen to RM3.46. However, United Plantations rose 18 sen to RM10.80, Sime and Chin Tek 10 sen higher to RM6.60 and RM6.70.

MISC foreign rose 25 sen to RM8.50 after falling the past two days on lower earnings. Putrajaya Perdana added 18 sen to RM4.18 while Hexagon advanced nine sen to RM1.25.