MyEG Services Bhd and Datasonic Group Bhd's share prices plunged today after both companies were mentioned in the criminal charge sheets filed against Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi this morning.

MyEG suspended trading on Bursa Malaysia at 2pm, after a 37 sen drop ending at RM1.13.

MyEG said it suspended trading pending a statement to clarify speculation on its involvement in Zahid's corruption charges.

According to the charge sheets, three charges against Zahid were for accepting 24 cheques totalling RM13.25 million between July 15, 2016 and Feb 8, 2017 from Mastoro Kenny IT Consultant & Services to help it secure a MyEG project

MyEG shares had initially climbed during early trade, moving up two sen to RM1.52 before taking a dive.

Meanwhile, Datasonic had dipped as low as 39.5 sen, but started to recover after the company issued a statement denying paying off Zahid for its 2015 smart passport contract.

Datasonic's stock price closed down 21 sen at 48 sen.

The MACC charge sheets stated that Datasonic managing director Chew Ben Ben had given Zahid two cheques totalling RM7 million on April 26, 2017.

Zahid was home minister at the time, and the MACC cited Datasonic's 2015 passport chip contract in the charge sheet.

Investment expert Eza Ezamie told Malaysiakini that the plunge of the stocks was due to panic selling.

"It could also be retailers or institutions deciding to sell off their shares because the two companies had become tainted by the charges against Zahid," the majalahlabur.com chief operating officer said.

However, Eza said, it was possible for the shares to bounce back when trading re-opens next week, if the companies can convince investors that they had nothing to do with the charges against Zahid.

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