KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 24): Selling persisted across the board on Bursa Malaysia, pulling the FBM Small Cap Index down to a five-year low of 12,845.54 points — the lowest closing since March 2013 — falling 245.74 points, or 1.88%.

The FBM KLCI failed to sustain its early gain to close at 1,690.04 points, down 7.56 points or 0.45%. The three component stocks leading the fall of the KLCI, in percentage terms, were Sime Darby Bhd, DiGi.com Bhd, and Telekom Malaysia Bhd, which has tumbled 64% to an almost eight-year low of RM2.22.

Across the local bourse, share prices were mostly lower at today’s closing bell with 620 decliners outstripping 245 gainers, while 348 counters were unchanged.

Trading volume stood at a total of 2.25 billion shares worth RM1.87 billion, compared with Tuesday’s 2.01 billion shares worth RM2.01 billion.

The technology sector saw the biggest drop today. The technology index fell 3.06% or 1.13 points to 35.86 points followed by the energy index, which declined 2.02% or 21.23 points to 1,027.01 points.

TA Securities senior technical analyst Stephen Soo told theedgemarkets.com that the selling pressure seen on the local bourse is expected to persist until next week, with the KLCI set to head towards the 1,680-level and possibly, 1,657 points.

“The overall sentiment is still weak, mainly due to concerns over the geopolitical issues. When the external sentiment weakens, it dampens the local market as well. We have seen a fair bit of foreign selling on key index stocks and it looks like there is a shift of funds from emerging markets to US-denominated assets,” Soo said.

He added that besides the spillover effects from geopolitical matters in the Middle East, European Union, US, and China, the falling prices of Brent crude oil played a contributing factor to the weakening of investor interests, as seen in pressure on mid and small-cap stocks.

At the time of writing, Brent crude oil was down 1.4% to US$75.37 per barrel.

Elsewhere in the region, Japan’s Nikkei 225 and the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index were up 0.37% and 0.33% respectively. Meanwhile, South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.4% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index finished 0.38% lower.

Reuters reported today that the propped up sentiment seen across some Asian stocks was a result of China’s fresh sign of stimulus, despite Wall Street’s overnight losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average at one point plunged over 500 points on Tuesday.