KUALA LUMPUR: Asian stock markets were largely down in morning trade Monday taking their cue from the fall in the Dow Jones on Friday.

The U.S. market retreated by 0.9-1.2% last Friday as investors sold financial stocks after JP Morgan Chase & Co.reported a loss at its retail banking and raised loss reserves for consumer loans, Hwang DBS said.

In its morning note to clients, it said taking its cue from the external development, the benchmark FBM KLCI may see a slight retracement today, widening the gap from the psychological mark of 1,300.

Meanwhile, the immediate support would be at 1,280 which we think is unlikely, the house said.

At 10.15 am, the FBM KLCI was down 0.22% to 1,295.7.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 shed 1.70% to 10.795.46 while Seoul’s Kospi was down 0.35% to 1,695.83.

At Bursa, rubber stocks extended their losses from Friday with Latexx falling 26 sen to RM3.92, Top Glove 20 sen to RM11.18, Hartalega and Latexx-WA 14 sen each to RM6.92 and RM3.45 However, IRC added six sen to RM1.43.

Tech-related stock MPI fell 22 sen to RM7.28 as investors locked in gains from Friday.

Others like Pentamaster continued thier run rising eight sen to 61.5 sen with 14.4 million shares done.

Nymex crude oil lost 69 cents to US$77.31per barrel.

Spot gold added 30 cents to US$1.131 per ounce.

The ringgit was quoted at 3.35 to the US dollar.