KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 17 — Bursa Malaysia remained weaker at mid-day today in cautious trading on lack of market participants, pending fresh leads and hopes for goodies in Budget 2018, a dealer said.

At 12.30pm, the key FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 1.05 points to 1,753.32, after moving between 1,751.95 and 1,755.43 throughout the morning session.

It opened 0.93 of-a-point lower at 1,753.44 from yesterday's close of 1,754.37.

On the broader market, losers overwhelmed gainers 412 to 287 with 398 counters unchanged, 747 untraded and 19 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.58 billion shares worth RM878.30 million.

A dealer said despite the uptrend seen in Asian bourses, influenced by positive developments in the US and China, Bursa Malaysia was slightly lower in quiet trading ahead of the Deepavali public holiday tomorrow .

"Perhaps, the local players remained on the sidelines, adopting a wait-and-see attitude as the 2018 Budget announcement is just around the corner,” he said.

He added that investors were hopeful that this year’s budget would provide more measures to boost the local economy amid the improvement in global crude oil prices and rebound in the ringgit.

This, he said, would attract more funds into the local bourse, be it local or foreign.

Meanwhile, of the heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM9.46, Tenaga rose four sen to RM14.30, Public Bank added two sen to RM20.48, while Sime Darby was one sen lower at RM9.07.

Among active counters, PUC inched up half-a-sen to 16.5 sen, Palette added three sen to 39.5 sen, MNC was flat at 10 sen and Netx Holding was down by half-a-sen to 5.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index shed 10.06 points to 12,584.43, the FBMT 100 Index slid 8.57 points to 12,232.02 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index lost 1.20 points to 12,901.03.

The FBM 70 declined 15.28 points to 15,328.56 while the FBM Ace rose 50.88 points to 7,026.53.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index eased 19.36 points to 7,956.23, the Finance Index was 52.05 points lower at 16,429.22 and the Industrial Index inched down 3.82 points to 3,225.41. — Bernama