KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI took a deep fall in the morning session as fears over a Russian intrusion into Ukraine created panic among investors, whose nerved were already frayed by the US Federal Reserve monetary policy meeting later this week.

       At 12.30pm, the key index was down 16.97 points, tracking a tumble in regional markets. In subdued trading, there were 1.77 billion shares exchanging hands for RM1.1bil across the Malaysian market.

       Tensions rose in East Europe with the US government and that of other Eurpoean nations readying military personnel for deployment in the event of Russian aggression against Ukraine.

       Major market indices across Asia were seen falling sharply, including Japan's Nikkei down 1.8%, South Korea's Kospi sliding 2.9% and China's composite index dropping 1.1%.

       Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 1.2% while Australia's ASX200 slumped 2.7%

       On Bursa Malaysia, there were 783 decliners to 149 gainers, giving the market an overwhelmingly negative market breadth.

       Of the 30 blue-chip FBM KLCI counters, all but two of the stocks were in the red.

       Maybank lost six sen to RM8.19, IHH dropped 14 sen to RM6.33, Press Metal slipped 10 sen to RM6, Digi fell 11 sen to RM3.83 and Sime Darby Plantation gave up 12 sen to RM3.88.

       Local technology stocks shaved 1.2%. MPI dropped 72 sen to RM38.78, KESM shed 34 sen to RM10.20 and D&O lost 17 sen to RM4.41.

       The most active stocks on Bursa were also in the red, led by market debutant Senheng, which lost 17.5 sen to 89.5 sen on the back of 134.9 million share traded.

       DNeX fell 3.5 sen to 89.5 sen with 109.89 million shares exchanging hands and Coraza slipped one sen to 80.5 sen with 66.36 million units traded.

       In commodities, crude oil prices paced higher amid the geopolitical uncertainty, giving the international benchmark a half percent boost to US$86.71 a barrel while US crude rose 0.3% to US$83.57 a barrel.