KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia continued the downtrend at mid-afternoon today on profit-taking, dealers said.

At 3pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 1.58 points lower at 1,808.83.

The Finance Index rose 28.53 points to 16,683.06 and the Plantation Index was 19.63 points higher at 8,635.21, while the Industrial Index eased 1.94 points to 3,134.95.

The FBM Emas Index decreased 8.36 points to 12,578.58, the FBMT100 slid 8.46 points to 12,302.44, while the FBM70 Index declined 3.77 points to 14,286.83.

The FBM Ace Index gained 25.26 points to 5,771.55.

There were 364 gainers to 347 losers, with 303 counters unchanged, 574 untraded and 19 others suspended.

Volume stood at 1.08 billion shares worth RM780.35 million.

Among actives, Hubline lost half-a-sen to 5.5 sen, while Insas added 11 sen for 75.5 sen, Tiger Synergy gained half-a-sen to 25.5 sen, and Censof increased three sen to 63.5 sen, as EA Holdings rose two sen to 18.5 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Petronas Gas added eight sen to RM24.38, while Petronas Chemicals and Tenaga Nasional were both unchanged at RM7.12 and RM9.40 respectively.

Sime Darby lost one sen to RM9.51 and Maxis eased four sen to RM7.15. — Bernama