KUALA LUMPUR (April 25): The FBM KLCI lost 0.62% at mid-morning today, tracking regional losses.

At 10am, the FBM KLCI fell 11.54 points to 1,853.84.

Losers beat gainers by 490 to 94, while 218 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 487.91 million shares valued at RM245.66 million.

The top losers included Nestle (M) Bhd, Panasonic Manufacturing Malaysia Bhd, Allianz Malaysia Bhd, Top Glove Corp Bhd, Unisem (M) Bhd, Malaysian Pacific Industries Bhd, KESM Industries Bhd, Hong Leong Industries Bhd, Hong Leong Bank Bhd and Hartalega Holdings Bhd.

The actives included Sapura Energy Bhd, Nexgram Holdings Bhd, Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd, Sumatec Resources Bhd and KNM Group Bhd.

The gainers included United Plantations Bhd, British American Tobacco (M) Bhd, Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Bhd and Ajinomoto (M) Bhd.

Asian shares were under pressure on Wednesday, with a rise in US bond yields above the 3% threshold and warnings from bellwether US companies of higher costs driving fears that corporate earnings growth may peak soon, according to Reuters.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.1% while Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.6%, it said.

Hong Leong IB Research in a traders' brief said in the US, sentiments are looking more cautious and worrisome for the traders with the rising 10-year Treasury yield and the traders are pricing in potential further interest rate hikes from the Fed's.

"Also, higher yields would mean greater borrowing costs for corporates.

"We believe the negative performance on overseas markets could dampen the trading tone on the local front and the recent slump in tech giants on Wall Street as well as the softer earnings in the local tech stocks may be dampening the trading interest moving forward.

"Hence, traders are likely to deploy a wait-and-see strategy ahead of the GE14," it said.