KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 5): Property and construction stocks, which have rallied on market excitement towards data centre projects rollout in the country, were among the selling targets on Monday as external headwinds spooked investors.

Bursa Malaysia Property Index, which tracks 97 stocks in the sector, settled down 9.74% to a nearly three-month low of 980.14 points, making it the biggest loser in the exchange on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Bursa Malaysia Construction Index, which tracks 49 stocks in the sector, dropped 9% to its one-month low of 259.36 points on Monday’s close.

Technology stocks on Bursa Malaysia have plummeted since Friday amid concerns over disappointing earnings of their global counterparts and design troubles of chips powering artificial intelligence. There are now also fears over the health of the US economy.

Despite the profit-taking activities, the three indices were still in the green year to date, led by Construction Index (still up 35.13%), Property Index (13.69%) and Technology Index (2.24%).

Sime Darby Property Bhd (KL:SIMEPROP), which will be building its hyperscale data centre at its Elmina Business Park, settled 24 sen or 16.11% lower at RM1.25, followed by UEM Sunrise Bhd (KL:UEMS), which in June sold off its land for the development of a data centre in Johor, dropped 16.5 sen or 15.57% to close at 89.5 sen.

Other property developers that are selling off their lands for the development of data centres in Johor, including Eco World Development Group Bhd (KL:ECOWLD) also fell 21 sen or 12.43% to RM1.48 at Monday’s close while Crescendo Corp Bhd (KL:CRESNDO) finished 48 sen or 10.62% lower at RM4.04 and Paragon Globe Bhd (KL:PGLOBE) slipped 1.5 sen or 5.17% to 27.5 sen.

For construction stocks linked to the data centre like Gamuda Bhd (KL:GAMUDA), which has secured multiple data centre jobs year to date, settled 69 sen or 9.03% lower at RM6.95, followed by IJM Corp Bhd (KL:IJM) as it dropped 29 sen or 8.98% to close at RM2.94 while Sunway Construction Group Bhd (KL:SUNCON) fell 35 sen or 8.24% to settle at RM3.90.

Malaysia’s benchmark FBM KLCI on Monday lost 74.51 points or 4.63% to close at 1,536.48 — the lowest in nearly three months — with all sectors in the red, mirroring the weaker performance of Wall Street last Friday, amid growing recessionary fears in the US following weaker-than-expected job data in July.

YTL Power International Bhd (KL:YTLPOWR), which last December secured Nvidia for its upcoming Johor data centre, is the biggest loser from a percentage perspective among the top 30 component stocks on the FBM KLCI.

The counter settled down 51 sen or 11.36% to RM3.98 on Monday while its 48.49% shareholder YTL Corp Bhd (KL:YTL) finished 30 sen or 6.15% lower at RM2.95.