KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7 — Bursa Malaysia remained lower at mid-day, weighed down by most heavyweight counters, led by Public Bank and Maybank, dealers said.

At lunch break, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,665.17, down 1.56 points, against Thursday’s close of 1,666.73.

After opening 2.21 points higher at 1,668.94 at 9am, the index moved between 1,663.43 and 1,670.30 throughout the morning session.

Losers led gainers 366 to 261 with 355 counters unchanged, 677 untraded and 33 others were suspended.

Turnover stood at 692.54 million shares worth RM633.75 million.

A dealer said the local exchange and most of its Asian peers were traded lower on Friday as investors focused on the release of the United States (US) non-farm payroll data later today.

Besides, there was renewed concern over Brexit, as heated talks about the United Kingdom’s move to exit from the European Union saw the British pound falling against the US dollar.

Among heavyweights, TNB and IHH Healthcare were each flat at RM14.36 and RM6.55, respectively, Public Bank dipped six sen to RM19.90 and Maybank eased one sen to RM7.69.

As for actives, Perak Transit lost one sen to 20 sen, Perisai Petroleum Teknologi rose half-a-sen to eight sen and Red Sena was flat at 41.5 sen.

Of losers, Apex Healthcare shed 30 sen to RM4.30, BAT eased 26 sen to RM48.74 and Lebtech slid 20 sen to RM1.10.

Gainers, Panasonic Manufacturing rose RM1.06 to RM36.48, Tien Wah Press Holdings increased 15 sen to RM2.01 and IOI Corporation perked seven sen to RM4.42 The FBM Emas Index fell 17.90 points to 11,755.09, the FBMT100 Index decreased 18.66 points to 11,458.80 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 7.52 points lower at 12,405.24.

The FBM 70 gave up 50.97 points to 13,753.57 but the FBM Ace rose 8.41 points to 5,170.54.

On a sectoral basis, the Industrial Index declined 9.87 points to 3,115.25, the Finance Index was 21.73 points lower at 14,290.71 but the Plantation Index recovered 20.32 points to 7,871.55. — Bernama