KUALA LUMPUR, April 15 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia remained lower at mid-afternoon today in line with regional weakness on renewed concerns over China's economic growth, dealers said.

At 3pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 1.84 points lower at 1,849.69.

Losers edged gainers 394 to 361, while 335 counters were unchanged, 537 untraded and 16 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.73 billion shares worth RM1.27 billion.

A dealer said Asian share markets turned lower, after an upbeat US retail sales report was eclipsed by data which showed China's money supply grew at the weakest pace in more than a decade in March, in another sign of softening economic momentum.

He said the soft data from China triggered renewed concerns as well as a reminder to investors of the headwinds facing the world's second-largest economy.

On the scoreboard, the Industrial Index climbed 4.29 points to 3,200.7, the Finance Index rose 7.711 points for 16,873.65, while the Plantation Index lost 20.011 points to 8,957.93.

The FBM Emas Index slipped 1.609 points to 12,835.94, while the FBMT100 Index improved 2.239 points to 12,482.85, and the FBM 70 jumped 59.75 points to 14,103.35, with the FBM Ace chalking-up 36.77 points to 6,778.08.

Among actives, Talam Transform lost one sen to 10 sen and Marco Holdings eased half a sen to 16.5 sen.

PDZ climbed half a sen to 15 sen, Frontken gained one sen to 12 sen and Iris added 1.5 sen for 50 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank lost one sen to RM9.76 and TNB shed eight sen to RM11.90.

CIMB and Sime Darby added two sen each for RM7.40 and RM9.30 respectively, while Axiata gained one sen for RM6.60. — Bernama