KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 9): The FBM KLCI fell 15.86 points or 0.86% at the noon break to close at 1,823.58 points. The less than 1% drop is considered relatively small compared with other Asian bourses which have slid over 3% today after Wall Street's overnight fall that sparked a fresh round of global share selldown.

Losers outnumbered gainers by 905 to 130, while 242 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 1.47 billion shares valued at RM1.24 billion.

Among the KLCI component stocks, Petronas Dagangan Bhd is currently the only gainer, while Petronas Gas Bhd, MISC Bhd and YTL Corp Bhd were among the top losers.

The ringgit weakened by 0.31% to 3.9390 against the greenback at noon.

Across Asia, China's Shanghai market was leading the fall this morning. The Shanghai Composite lost 4.11%, Japan's Nikkei 225 dropped 2.67%, South Korea's Kospi fell 1.69% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 3.33%.

The concern on rising inflationary pressure in the US and the continued climb on US bond yield came back to haunt the markets, causing investors to flee from equities.

Inter Pacific Securities research head Pong Teng Siew noted that all financial markets are linked. Hence, it's quite natural for the Asian market to react to the US market. "Just like in 2007, Asian markets were a bit in denial, hoping that if the US market falls, it would not affect them. But they never can," said Pong.

In a note today, PublicInvest Research said the FBM KLCI could see another ugly day after US stocks ran into another wave of heavy selling on Thursday, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average ending 10% down from the record highs set less than a fortnight ago, as concerns about inflation and higher interest rates continued to rattle participants.

Note that brent crude futures also followed the trend to continue declining to US$64.37 per barrel.