KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 16 ― Bursa Malaysia turned lower at mid-morning today, amid mixed sentiment on regional markets, as profit taking in heavyweights emerged, dealers said.

At 11am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,820.91, down 5.0 points from yesterday's close of 1,825.91, while opening 1.77 points better at 1,827.68.

Overall market breadth was lower as losers led gainers 827 to 129, while 268 counters were unchanged, 581 untraded and 22 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 3.23 billion shares worth RM1.18 billion.

On Bursa Malaysia, the FBM Emas Index was 73.55 points weaker at 13,130.75 and the FBMT 100 Index declined 64.59 points to 12,782.72 and the FBM 70 dropped 181.59 points to 16,298.11.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 97.55 points to 13,562.54 and the FBM Ace slid 147.07 points to 6,673.37.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index declined 40.45 points to 17,170.21, the Industrial Index slipped 40.14 points to 3,353.92 and the Plantation Index slid 27.83 points to 8,096.57.

Among heavyweights, Maybank and TNB were flat at RM9.85 and RM15.82 respectively, while Public Bank eased two sen to RM20.86 and Petrnoas Chemicals dipped 11 sen to RM8.07.

Of the actives, Sumatec advanced one sen to 11.5 sen, Globaltec earned half-a-sen to six sen, Perisai Petroleum went up two sen to seven sen, while Sino Hua-An contracted 7.5 sen to 57 sen. ― Bernama