BURSA MALAYSIA REMAINS LOWER AT MID-AFTERNOON

KUALA LUMPUR, July 25 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia remained lower at mid-afternoon amid subdued market sentiment, in line with the weaker performance in regional markets.

Nevertheless, the local bourse did not perform badly relative to regional peers, with the barometer index falling only 0.42 per cent. 

At 3.00 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slid 6.85 points to 1,614.29 from Wednesday's close of 1,621.14, after opening 4.06 points lower at 1,617.08.

At the time of writing, South Korea’s Kospi Composite Index declined 1.74 per cent to 2,710.65, Singapore’s Straits Times Index decreased 0.95 per cent to 3,427.97, Japan's Nikkei 225 Index tumbled 3.28 per cent to 37,869.51, Indonesia's IDX Composite Index dropped 0.54 per cent to 7,223.32, China's SSE Composite Index slipped 0.52 per cent to 2,886.74, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dipped 1.78 per cent to 17,003.34.

On Bursa Malaysia, decliners outpaced advancers 905 to 239, with 438 counters unchanged, 906 untraded and 17 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 3.23 billion units worth RM1.75 billion.

Heavyweights Public Bank and IHH Healthcare added 1.0 sen each to RM4.19 and RM6.26, respectively, while Maybank and CIMB Group dropped 2.0 sen each to RM10.10 and RM7.18 respectively, while Tenaga Nasional fell 26 sen to RM14.14.

Among the actives, both Zen Tech International and OCR Group gained half-a-sen to 1.5 sen and 11 sen respectively, Artroniq eased 1.0 sen to 20 sen, Ekovest shed 1.5 sen to 47.5 sen, and Hubline edged down half-a-sen to 12.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index decreased by 77.16 points to 12,470.66, the FBMT 100 Index slid 71.00 points to 12,054.66, the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell by 111.99 points to 12,764.89, the FBM 70 Index declined by 181.51 points to 18,512.88, and the FBM ACE Index dropped by 29.47 points to 5,827.39.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index dipped 7.49 points to 17,942.81, the Plantation Index lost 11.49 points to 7,161.15, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased by 1.07 points to 192.24, and the Energy Index shed 6.42 points to 959.61.

-- BERNAMA