KUALA LUMPUR (April 3): The FBM KLCI may remain on tenterhooks today after the worst April start at Wall Street since 1929, as U.S. stock indexes fell sharply overnight.

The dollar slid on Monday as China raised tariffs on U.S. goods in an escalating spat between the world's two biggest economies while stocks on Wall Street tumbled, led by a rout in technology shares, after President Donald Trump again attacked Amazon.com, according to Reuters.

China bumped up tariffs by as much as 25 percent on 128 U.S. products, from frozen pork and wine to fruits and nuts, in response to U.S. duties on imports of aluminum and steel, it said.

Reuters said the three major U.S. stock indexes fell more than 2 percent each as the rout wiped out the tech-heavy Nasdaq index's gains for the year and sent the benchmark S&P 500 crashing through its 200-day moving average, a closely watched technical indicator.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 458.92 points, or 1.9 percent, to 23,644.19. The S&P 500 lost 58.99 points, or 2.23 percent, to 2,581.88 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 193.33 points, or 2.74 percent, to 6,870.12, it said.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that U.S. stocks had their worst April start since 1929. It said The S&P 500 index slumped 2.2 percent, a rout exceeded only by its 2.5 percent decline 89 years ago, a prelude to the devastating crash later that year that brought on the Great Depression.

On the domestic front, acquisition of Malaysian equity at Bursa Malaysia in the first quarter of this year by foreign investors dipped to RM2.20 billion from RM5.47 billion a year earlier, according to MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd.

In his weekly fund flow report yesterday, MIDF Research’s Adam M Rahim global funds took a breather from Malaysian stocks last week after two straight weeks of buying on the back drop of global geopolitical worries.

Based on corporate announcements and newsflow yesterday, stocks in focus today may include: WCT Holdings Bhd, Tenaga Nasional Bhd, Leweko Resources Bhd, GFM Services Bhd, Datasonic Group Bhd, Pasukhas Group Bhd, Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd.