KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 11): The FBM KLCI pared some of its loss at mid-morning but was still down 0.8% in line with the slump at most regional markets.

At 10.02am, the index fell 14.11 points to 1,751.41. It had earlier fallen to a low of 1,742.35.

The top losers included Petronas Gas Bhd, Petronas Dagangan Bhd, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd, Aeon Credit Services (M) Bhd, Sime Darby Bhd, Hong Leong Bank Bhd, Public Bank Bhd and Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd.

EA Technique (M) Bhd was the most actively traded counter with 31.02 million shares done. The stock slumped 11.54% or 7.5 sen to 57.5 sen.

The other actives included Minetech Resources Bhd, Technodex Bhd, Tiger Synergy Bhd, Perisai Petroleum Teknologi Bhd and SapuraKencana Petroleum Bhd.

The top gainers included United Plantations Bhd, British American Tobacco (M) Bhd, Gas Malaysia Bhd, MISC Bhd, Tahps Group Bhd, Pestech International Bhd, DiGi.Com, Bhd and Adventa Bhd.

Regionally, Asian stocks fell early on Thursday as falling oil prices continued to feed into global growth concerns, while the dollar lost more ground against peers such as the yen and euro after a further drop in U.S. bond yields, according to Reuters.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.2 percent as another large drop in oil prices took a heavy toll on energy shares and hit Wall Street hard overnight, it said.

JF Apex Securities Research said U.S. stocks closed sharply lower overnight, furthering the week's losses, as the price of crude fell to a new five-year low and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cut its demand outlook for next year.

Similarly, it said European shares closed largely lower, continuing a declining trend as Greek political fears and slumping oil prices weigh.

“On the local market, the FBM KLCI surged 27.42 points to 1765.52 points following a technical rebound.

“Due to the decline in US markets and lower oil price, we expect profit taking with immediate support at 1735 points,” it said.