KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia sank into a sea of red on Thursday, tracking a sell-off in regional equities, as Russia attacked Ukraine.

       At 5pm, the FBM KLCI closed down 12.25 points, or 0.77% to 1,573.89 after moving between 1,586.07 and 1,565.24 throughout the day.

       The broader market sagged, with decliners now overtaking advancers 960 to 256 while 295 counters were unchanged.

       Trading volume was brisk at 5.51 billion shares valued at RM4.12bil.

       Russia fired missiles at several cities in Ukraine and landed troops on its coast on Thursday after President Vladimir Putin authorised what he called a special military operation.

       Dealers said Russia's invasion of Ukraine had impacted global investor sentiment and investors scrambled for the safety of gold.

       Gold prices jumped more than 2% on Thursday to their highest in over a year and palladium, Reuters reported.

       Spot gold climbed 1.8% to US$1,941.50 per ounce by 0841 GMT, after hitting the highest since January 2021 at $1,948.77.

       Oil prices surged on Thursday, with Brent breaching US$100 a barrel for the first time since 2014.

       Brent crude surged US$6.61, or 6.83%, to US$103.45 a barrel while US West Texas Intermediate crude was at US$98.09 per barrel, up US$5.99.

       On Bursa Malaysia, Genting Plantations added 53 sen to RM8.93, Hengyuan rose 34 sen to RM4.56, PMB Technology gained 34 sen to RM20.04, Hap Seng Plantations advanced 31 sen to RM2.66 and Petron climbed 26 sen to RM5.08.

       Nestle tumbled RM1.50 to RM134, MPI shed RM1.20 to RM35.10, Aeon Credit lost 60 sen to RM14.18, Complete Logistic fell 43 sen to RM3.42 and KESM eased 33 sen to RM9.95.

       Maybank and CIMB lost seven sen each to RM8.70 and RM5.48 respectively. Public Bank eased eight sen to RM4.28, Hong Leong Bank fell 12 sen to RM19.74 and RHB Bank closed unchanged at RM5.69.