KUALA LUMPUR, March 6 ― Trading on Bursa Malaysia remained in negative territory at mid-afternoon, with selling in heavyweight stocks led by financial services stocks continued to weigh on the barometer index.
Public Bank and CIMB weighed 4.30 points of the index.
A dealer said the local bourse is moving in tandem with the performance of regional peers, taking the cue from an overnight sharp drop on Wall Street on fears over the fallout from the Covid-19 outbreak.
At 3.03pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 9.53 points weaker at 1,481.50 from Thursday’s close of 1,491.03.
At the opening bell, the benchmark index opened 4.19 points lower at 1,486.84.
On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 625 to 224, with 285 counters unchanged, 863 untraded and 17 others suspended.
Turnover amounted to 1.79 billion shares worth RM1.31 billion.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank reduced one sen to RM8.52, Tenaga shed four sen to RM12.60, Public Bank fell 44 sen to RM17.56, IHH eased two sen each to RM5.58, and Petronas Chemicals slipped six sen to RM5.60.
Of the actives, Vortex and Sapura Energy eased half-a-sen each to seven sen and 16.5 sen, respectively, MTouche shed one sen to 12.5 sen, while Careplus added three sen to 32.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index dipped 86.09 points to 10,447.12, the FBM Emas Shariah Index shed 66.27 points to 11,123.73 and the FBM 70 dropped 160.76 points to 12,760.03.
The FBMT 100 Index was 80.70 points lower at 10,273.59 and the FBM Ace fell 24.52 points to 5,268.92.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 1.65 points to 135.21, the Financial Services Index tumbled 126.77 points to 14,333.94 and the Plantation Index shed 21.73 points to 6,745.04. ― Bernama