KUALA LUMPUR: Investors fled to the sidelines on Bursa Malaysia following a plunge on Wall street overnight as investors dumped equities on fears of an economic slowdown.

       The Dow Jones and S&P500 were both down more than 2% each, while the Nasdaq slumped nearly 4% as investors sold down technology stocks ahead of big corporate earnings results for fear of disappointment.

       Meanwhile, sluggish earnigns from General Electric weighed on sentiment while Tesla plunged after Elon Musk agreed to purchase Twitter.

       At 9.05am, the FBM KLCI was down 7.7 points to 1,588,98, as rising inflation, interest rate hikes and geopolitical tension accelerated the risk-off mood in global equities markets.

       In the domestic tech sector, stocks tracked the Nasdaq lower by 2.55%.

       MPI fell 70 sen to RM30.30, Vitrox shed 20 sen to RM7.30 and Greatech fell 13 sen to RM3.82.

       Bank stocks were also weighed down by the prospect of softer economic growth. Maybank dipped two sen to RM8.93, Public Bank slid one sen to RM4.71, CIMB shed three sen to RM5.16 and Hong Leong Bank was unchanged at RM20.92.

       In plantations, Kuala Lumpur Kepong lost eight sen to RM28.84, IOI dropped five sen to RM4.63 and Sime Darby Plantation was unchanged at RM5.12.