KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 26 — Bursa Malaysia was easier at mid-afternoon today on continued selling pressure in heavyweights led by Petronas Chemicals, which lost 18 sen to RM5.33, dealers said.

At 3pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,794.17, down 8.91 points, after opening 2.59 points lower at 1,800.49.

Decliners outpaced gainers by 510 to 255, while 280 counters were unchanged, 689 untraded and 23 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.25 billion shares worth RM1.09 billion.

The FBM Emas Index fell 58.569 points to 12,358.53, FBMT100 Index slipped 53.37 points to 12,056.86 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index lost 45.79 points to 12,956.26.

The FBM 70 declined 34.19 points to 13,426.96 and the FBM Ace fell 22.61 points to 6,337.99.

On a sectoral basis, the Industrial Index slipped 12.22 points to 3,277.62, Plantation Index trimmed 22.19 points to 7,909.9 and the Finance Index eased 93.021 points to 15,583.27.

Among actives, Daya Materials fell a sen to 15.5 sen, KNM declined five sen to 57.5 sen and Dayang Nexchange decreased half-a-sen to 32.5 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Tenaga Nasional fell four sen to RM15.06, and Maybank and Public Bank slipped eight sen each to RM8.92 and RM18.06 respectively. — Bernama