KUALA LUMPUR: The local market fell sharply in tandem with global markets as the political crisis raised the possibility of further erosion of European unity, derailing expectations of global growth.Observers say the repeat election in Europe's third-largest economy may determine the future participation of Italy in the EU.On the local front, Bursa Malaysia, which was already seeing a steady outflow of foreign investment dollars, was one of the worst performing markets in the morning session.At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI fell 44.86 points to 1,730.98. TUrnover was 1.77 billion shares with a value of RM1.79bil. There were 985 decliners versus 110 gainers and 261 counters unchanged.Heavyweights Maybank and Tenaga Nasional were two of the biggest decliners. Malaysia's largest banking group lost 41 sen to RM9.59 while TNB dropped 68 sen to RM14.10, shaving a combined 13.3 points off the index.Meanwhile, Petronas Chemicals fell 31 sen to RM8.Banks were among the clear losers of the day, on the heels of their US counterparts which led the declines on Wall Street overnight.Public Bank slid 28 sen to RM24.62, CIMB dropped nine sen to RM5.97 and Hong Leong Bank slipped 52 sen to RM18.42.Telco counter Axiata lost 14 sen to RM4.22 while Digi fell 14 sen to RM4.30. It also fell a half percent agains the pound sterling at 5.2950 and a half percent against the Singapore dollar at 2.706.

Source: The Star May 30, 2018 05:03 UTC