Malaysia O&G counters slump amid US crude price plunge

Kuala Lumpur

THE plunge in US crude oil prices to a five-year low amid bleak short-term prospects of a recovery precipitated a rout of oil & gas companies in Malaysia on Monday as investors fled the sector that has been a mainstay of the country's economy since 2009.

At the start of trading, the benchmark Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) kicked off the week with a marginal 0.03 per cent rise. But it proved a brief respite as the blood-letting of oil & gas counters emerged with many of them seeing double-digit losses. UMW Oil & Gas suffered a loss of nearly 18 per cent.