KUALA LUMPUR: There was no let up in selling pressure on Bursa Malaysia as investors fled equities amid the growing uncertainty over surging commodity prices while Ukraine and Russia peace talks made no headway.

       At 12.30pm, the FBMKLI was down 24.42 points to 1,548.14.

       The market was drenched in red with three times as many decliners as gainers while blue chips were also broadly lower.

       Amid fears over disruptions to the economy caused by skyrocketing energy prices, aluminium producer Press Metal fell 21 sen to RM6.89.

       Energy and plantation stocks also succumbed to the sell-off. Petronas Chemicals dropped 11 sen to RM9.99 and Kuala Lumpur Kepong shaved 72 sen to RM26.98

       In banks, CIMB was down nine sen to RM4.78, Maybank dipped three sen to RM8.76 and Hong Leong Bank lost 44 sen to RM19.58.

       Meanwhile, tech stocks continued to fall with MPI losing RM1.86 to RM29 and Vitrox slashing 36 sne ot RM6.41.

       Top actives were DNeX down 1.5 sen to 91.5 sen, G3 rising 0.5 sen to eight sen and SMTrack sliding 2.5 sen to 14.5 sen.

       Japan's Nikkei fell 1.2%, South Korea's Kospi dropped 0.65% and China's composite index slid 2%.

       Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.5% while Australia's ASX200 dropped 0.7%.