KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 23 ― Bursa Malaysia remained in negative territory at mid-day on selling activities in the heavyweight counters, led by trade and services, and finance counters.

At 12.31pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,624.34 points, down 4.98 points from Tuesday's close of 1,629.32.

After opening 1.98 points higher at 1,631.3 this morning, the index lingered between 1,622.49 and 1,631.67 points.

Losers in the key index were TNB, which dipped eight sen to RM14.12, Genting Bhd, which slipped 13 sen to RM8.03, Maxis, which dropped five sen to RM5.79, Maybank, which fell a sen to RM7.68, and RHB Bank which shed six sen to RM4.64.

On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers by 503 to 180 with 279 counters unchanged, 761 untraded and 26 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 939.45 million shares worth RM771.01 million.              

Among losers, BAT lost 96 sen to RM44.04, DKSH dropped 75 sen to RM5.4 and Kossan shed 28 sen to RM6.61.

Of the actives, FGV fell 14 sen to RM1.55, AirAsia X was half-a-sen lower at 39.5 sen, Vivocom added half-a-sen to 18 sen, and RGB slid 1.5 sen to 24 sen.

The FBM Emas Index lost 53.05 points to 11,424.23, the FBM Emas Syariah Index was 54.98 points weaker at 12,022.57 and the FBM Ace was 29.74 points lower at 4,987.49.

The FBMT100 Index fell 49.38 points to 11,137.79 and the FBM 70 declined 113.87 points to 13,223.79.

On a sectoral basis, the Industrial Index was slightly lower by 0.37 of-a-point at 3,070.44 and the Finance Index slid 36.6 points to 14,125.90.

The Plantation Index was 14.31 points weaker at 7,689.46. ― Bernama