Reuters reported that countries have shuttered their doors to Britain following news that the new strain of virus found in the country was up to 70% more transmissible than the original.
At 12.30pm, the benchmark FBM KLCI was down 16.94 points to 1,630.95. Market breadth was overwhelmingly negative with 989 declining counters on the market versus 232 gainers.
Financial heavyweights led the fall on the index with Maybank sliding 11 sen to RM8.37, Public Bank dropping 18 sen to RM20.48, CIMB losing 15 sen to RM4.15 and Hong Leong Bank shedding 12 sen to RM18.46.
Some attention returned to glove stocks given the prospect of a worsening crisis as Top Glove rose one sen to RM6.63 and Hartalega
added six sen to RM12.56.Among Petronas-related counters, Petronas Gas dropped 24 sen to RM17.32, Petronas Chemicals fell 21 sen to RM7.33 and Petronas Dagangan lost six sen to RM21.
On a sectoral basis, the Bursa Malaysia Energy Index was among the worst hit with the sector falling 1.8% as crude oil prices extended their slide on the prospect of more economic shutdowns.
Brent crude was down 24 cents or 0.5% to US$50.67 a barrel while WTI crude dropped 31 cents or 0.65% to US$47.66 a barrel.
The Bursa Malaysia Financial Services Index slid 1.5% and construction shed 1.7%.
The Technology Index held up relatively well with only a 0.7% decline.
Of actives, Technax slid two sen to 14.5 sen, Iris rose one sen to 40 sen and Bintain Kinden added 9.5 sen to 76 sen.
In Asian markets, the MSCI Asia Pacific ex-Japan Index slid 0.5%
Japan's Nikkei was down 0.7% and South Korea's Kospi dropped 0.4%.
China's benchmark index fell 0.2% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.1.
Australia's ASX 200 slid 1.25%.
