KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 6): Highly liquid oil and gas-related stocks were among the most actively-traded counters on Bursa Malaysia today, as their prices fell following a broad-based market sell down. 

MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd Research analyst Aaron Tan said the O&G stocks were only affected due to their high propensity to be overbought by retail investors.  

"O&G counters have been rallying in the past week or so. In a market downturn like today, it is only normal for these stocks to get pulled back because of its high trading volume," he said.  

UMW Oil & Gas Corp Bhd was the most actively-traded stock. It was down 1.5 sen or 4.62% to 31 sen at 3.15 pm. Its volume stood at 113.17 million shares, which is sharply higher than its 200-day average volume of 39.5 million shares.  

Also actively traded was Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd, which was down 6 sen or 6.86% at 81.5 sen, with 102.3 million shares exchanging hands. 

Other active O&G counters included Sumatec Resources Bhd and Sapura Energy Bhd, which came down by 6.67% and 0.71% respectively.  

Reuters reported oil prices extended their fall from the previous market session, as global financial markets tumbled lower in the wake of one of the biggest intra-day falls ever registered on Wall Street. 

“People ran to the U.S. dollar as a safe haven currency. Therefore, the dollar strengthens. This makes commodities more expensive to buy, hence oil futures get sold off,” the news agency quoted Sukrit Vijayakar, director at consultancy Trifecta Energy, as saying.

At 3.15pm, Brent crude oil futures were down 0.83% at US$67.06, while WTI crude futures declined 0.81% at US$63.63.