KUALA LUMPUR, May 16 ― The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) remained lower at mid-afternoon on continued selling of blue chips, buoyed by the rebalancing of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index (MSCI), dealers said.

The MSCI, which is an index created by Morgan Stanley Capital International, is designed to measure emerging-market performance globally.

The rebalancing of the index will reduce its weightage on Malaysian stocks, come June 1.

“However, this is a short-term movement and we expect local stocks to rebound again,” a dealer said.

At 3.07pm, the FBM KLCI was 11.27 points lower at 1,616.99.

It opened 0.26 of a point better at 1,628.52 from Friday's close of 1,628.26.

Market breadth was negative with losers edging gainers 536 to 193, while 296 counters were unchanged, 686 untraded and 13 others were suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.10 billion shares worth RM861.93 million.    

Among heavyweights, Maybank slipped three sen to RM8.46, TNB and IHH slid two sen each to RM13.98 and RM6.58, respectively, while Public Bank was four sen lower at RM19.

Of actives, LKL International rose 10 sen to 30 sen, Vivocom erased one sen to 33.5 sen, AirAsia X added 1.5 sen to 39.5 sen and AirAsia was four sen better at RM2.20.

The FBM Emas Index lost 72.17 points to 11,329.70, the FBMT100 Index dropped 174.24 points to 11,039.95 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index contracted 75.70 points to 11,830.08.

The FBM Ace fell 50.86 points to 5,711.98 while the FBM 70 Index gave up 63.48 points to 12,832.96.

On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index was 86.98 points weaker at 14,218.05, the Plantation Index was down 23.53 points to 7,431.93 and the Industrial Index inched down 26.43 points to 3,004.06. ― Bernama