KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 3 — Bursa Malaysia turned mixed at mid-morning today amid bearish regional markets and as Wall Street slumped to an overnight decline on the back of floundering crude oil prices, a dealer said.

At 11.07am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) lost 4.74 points to 1,655.49, against yesterday’s close of 1,660.23.

The index opened 2.79 points lower at 1,657.44.

Losers outpaced gainers 276 to 272, while 328 counters were unchanged, 803 untraded and 19 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 901.57 million shares worth RM371.16 million.

The benchmark Brent Crude settled 34 cents down at US$41.80 per barrel, while US Crude was lower 55 cents at US$39.51.

AllianceDBS Research in its evening edition said given the low volatility environment and absence of news flow, market participants were unwilling to commit themselves in a more aggressive manner, for fear of the market moving against them in an opposite direction after making a buy or a sell decision.

"So, buyers and sellers will continue to exchange their stock positions between 1,650 and 1,675 in the coming few days until we see a breakout,” said the research house in a note.

It also said the analysis of overall market action yesterday revealed that buying power was weaker than selling pressure.

"As such, the FBM KLCI will likely trade below the 1,657.78 level today,” it added.

Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei 225 slid 0.86 per cent to 16,249.97,Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped1.78 per cent to 21,736.21 and Singapore’s Straits Times declined 0.89 per cent to 2,831.32.

Among the heavyweights, MISC Bhd was up eight sen to RM7.49, IOI Corp and Westports gained four sen each to RM4.29 and RM4.49, and Maybank added one sen to RM7.99. 

The FBM Emas Index declined 18.98 points to 11,611.40, the FBMT100 Index decreased 22.25 points to 11,311.16, and the FBM Ace eased 8.78 points to 5,383.48.

However, the FBM 70 gained 10.73 points to 13,283.24 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 0.32 of-a-point to 12,223.70.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index contracted 56.96 points to 14,179.04, the Industrial Index decreased 4.19 points to 3,107.79, but the Plantation Index added 20.98 points to 7,607.90.

Of the gainers, Nestle jumped 98 sen to RM80.38, Panasonic accumulated 64 sen to RM38.42, F&N added 16 sen to RM26.50, Apex Healthcare rose 15 sen to RM3.90 and George Kent was nine sen higher at RM2.31. — Bernama