KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia joined its regional peers in negative territory on Wednesday with selling pressure seen across the board.

Dealers said market sentiment was curbed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments on trade. Investors continued to fret over slowing growth and the impact of the US- China trade dispute.

The becnhmark FBM KLCI shed 11.26 points to 1,657.68 after staying in the negative territory throughout the day amid a weak broader market. The index opened 1.44 oints easier at 1,667.50 this morning. Over the course of today’s trading session, the index traded in a range of 11.03 points.

The broader market displayed its weakness as decliners thumped advancers by wide margin, with 618 losers to 226 gainers and 399 counters unchanged. Volume stood at to 3.82 billion units, valued at RM1.97bil.

In today’s session, 27 of the KLCI-component stocks closed lower while only one counter chalked up gains and two counters closed unchanged.

Leading the index lower, Petronas Chemicals shed 32 sen to RM7.92, Tenaga Nasional shaved 22 sen to RM13.56 while Maxis fell six sen to RM5.64.

IOI Corp was the top gainer on the 30-stock index, rising two sen to RM4.24.

On the broader market, British American Tobocca fell 64 sen to RM30, Allianz-PA shed 40 sen to RM13.60 while MPI fell 23 sen to RM9.31.

On the external front, China stocks closed down on Wednesday. At the close, the Shanghai Composite index was down 0.2% at 2,931.69 while the blue-chip CSI300 index was down 0.06% to 3,804.64.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was down 26.45 points, or 0.09%, at 28,593.17. 

South Korea’s Kospi index fell 18.95 points or 0.91% to 2,072.92 while Japan’s Nikkei share average fell 0.3% to 21,469.18.