KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian stocks fell deeper into the red as investors were spooked by reports of a Ukrainian nuclear power plant being hit during an attack by Russian military.

       At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 19.34 points to 1,599.2 as the investors took profit off the table amid the surging inflation and growing intensity of the Russia-Ukraine war.

       The market breadth was overwhelmingly negative with 820 decliners compared to 169 gainers.

       Among the blue chips, sharp losses were recorded across sectors.

       Maybank lost eight sen to RM9.04, Tenaga Nasional dropped 12 sen to RM9.03 and Axiata dropped 10 sen to RM3.77.

       Kuala Lumpur Kepong slid 92 sen to RM28.08, IOI shed nine sen to RM4.54 and Sime Darby Plantation fell eight sen to RM5.18.

       MPI led technology stocks lower after falling RM1.66 to RM32.46 while D&O dropped 31 sen to RM4.02.

       On the actives list, SMTrack was down 0.5 sen to 19.5 sen, Cap rose one sen to two sen and DNeX lost 0.5 sen to RM1.03.

       Meanwhile Asian markets were sharply lower on as fierce fighting continues around the site of Europe's largest nuclear power plant in the Ukrainian city of Enerdohar, which had caught fire during a Russian attack.

       Japan's Nikkei dove 2.4%, South Korea's Kosi fell 1.3% and China's composite index slid 0.6%.

       Hong Kong's Hang Seng meanwhile plummeted 2.7% while Australia's ASX200 dropped 0.8%.