Bursa Malaysia Remains Lower At Mid-afternoon

KUALA LUMPUR, March 12 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia stayed lower at mid-afternoon, weighed by continuous selling in selected heavyweights led by financial services as well as telecommunications and media counters.

At 3 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slid 5.29 points to 1,703.49 from yesterday’s close of 1,708.78.

The benchmark index opened 8.09 points lower at 1,700.69.

Market breadth was negative, with losers outnumbering gainers 588 to 369. A total of 506 counters were unchanged, 1,204 untraded, and 17 suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.94 billion units valued at RM1.97 billion.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank shed one sen to RM11.46, CelcomDigi fell three sen to RM3.17, Tenaga Nasional dropped four sen to RM14.20, CIMB was flat at RM8.00, and Public Bank added six sen to RM4.81.

On the most active list, ACE Market debutant OGX Group trimmed one sen to 34 sen, while AirAsia X and Zetrix AI increased one sen each to RM1.21 and 75 sen respectively, Lotte Chemical Titan Holdings improved 3.5 sen to 45 sen, and Hengyuan Refining Company gained seven sen to RM1.63.

As for the top gainers, Petronas Chemicals went up 27 sen to RM4.41, United Plantations jumped 56 sen to RM32.20, Nestlé surged 80 sen to RM103.70, PPB Group climbed 34 sen to RM11.34, and Batu Kawan bagged 30 sen to RM19.86.

Of the top losers, Malaysian Pacific Industries erased 32 sen to RM29.66, Pineapple Resources dipped 22 sen to 60 sen, Apollo Food Holdings tumbled 19 sen to RM5.81, Pentamaster Corp lost 24 sen to RM2.84, and Hong Leong Bank reduced 20 sen to RM22.88.

On the index board, the FBM Top 100 Index fell 35.56 points to 12,290.74, the FBM Emas Index declined 37.75 points to 12,446.39, the FBM Mid 70 Index dropped 37.54 points to 17,124.89, the FBM Emas Shariah Index eased 10.45 points to 12,153.09, and the FBM ACE Index retreated 38.26 points to 4,366.42.

By sector, the Financial Services Index fell 168.38 points to 20,604.94 and the Energy Index shaved off 1.59 points to 794.85, while the Industrial Products and Services Index notched up 1.18 points to 174.62 and the Plantation Index rose 66.58 points to 8,449.40.

-- BERNAMA