KUALA LUMPUR, July 31 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia were in the red at mid-afternoon today on lack buying interest, with losses seen mostly in the banking stocks, dealers said.

As of 3.05 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 19.8 points to 1,775.28.

Maybank slipped 26 sen to RM10.30 and CIMB shed 18 sen to RM7.97, dragging the FBM KLCI down by 6.557 points.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index dropped 320.89 points to 16,814.54, Plantation Index eased 58.60 points to 8,320.19 and the Industrial index fell 21.78 points to 3,025.

The FBM Emas Index lost 154.81 points to 12,348.90, FBMT100 Index fell 148.77 points to 12,101.49, FBM Ace Index shed 72.67 points to 4,974.58 and the FBM 70 Index tumbled 230.92 points to 14,169.76.

Losers broadly outpaced gainers by 716 to 88, with 218 counters unchanged, 577 untraded and 43 others were suspended.

A total of 1.253 billion shares worth RM1.715 billion were traded.

Among actives, Sona Petroleum eased 2.5 sen to 42 sen, UEM Sunrise shed 15 sen to RM2.71, Dialog fell 18 sen to RM2.82 and Malaysia Airlines slipped half-a-sen to 30.5 sen.

Flonic Hi-Tec added one sen to 13 sen.

In heavyweights, Axiata and Petronas Chemicals fell two sen each to RM6.81 and RM6.63 respectively.

Sime Darby gained one sen to RM9.50. — Bernama