KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 25 ― Bursa Malaysia remained lower at mid-afternoon, dragged down by losses in heavyweights.

At 3pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 9.80 points to 1,765.70 after opening 3.4 points lower at 1,772.10 from yesterday's close of 1,775.50.

On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 524 to 260 with 342 counters unchanged, 714 counters untraded and 37 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.32 billion shares worth RM964.39 million.

Among heavyweights, Maybank fell four sen to RM9.53, Sime Darby lost 15 sen to RM9.08, while both Tenaga and Public Bank rose two sen each to RM14.30 and RM20.58 respectively.

Of actives, Palette Multimedia gained 1.5 sen to 12.5 sen, AirAsia X inched up half-a-sen to 39.5 sen, Frontken added one sen to 35 sen, while Mlabs was flat at 24 sen.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 64.47 points to 12,777.53, the FBMT 100 Index shed  55.77 points to 12,243.65 and the FBM Emas Index eased  60.85 points to 12,582.80.

The FBM 70 lost 22.94 points to 15,064.61, but the FBM Ace gained 10.60 points to 6,656.08.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index declined 47.15 points to 16,652.47, the Industrial Index fell 22.58 points to 3,210.11, while the Plantation Index gave up 27.26 points at 7,848.61. ― Bernama