KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 30 ― Bursa Malaysia remained in negative territory at mid-morning today with the key index slipped 0.09 per cent and the overall market breadth narrowed, with the number of losers doubled the gainers.

A dealer said market players awaited on the sidelines, ahead of the release of the US Federal Open Market Committee meeting’s minutes tomorrow after its first 2018 meeting today.

Even though the market anticipates that there will be no changes to the policy rate, the market still awaits the outcome, he said.

PetGas topped the losers-index related counters, declining 0.26 sen to RM18.16, followed by HLBank, erasing 20 sen to RM18.46 and MISC, declining nine sen to RM7.45.

At 11am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 1.86 points weaker at 1,868.66 from Monday's close of 1,870.52, after opening 5.17 points lower at 1,865.35. 

Losers led gainers 542 to 230, while 335 counters were unchanged, 779 untraded and 73 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 931.21 billion shares worth RM518.64 million.

The FBM Emas Index lost  38.69 points to 13,404.23, the FBMT 100 Index reduced 35.02 points to 13,089.09 and the FBM 70 trimmed 118.68 points to 16,591.66.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index slipped 62.23 points to 13,691.44 and the FBM Ace declined 8.9 points to 6,578.0.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index down 22.05 points to 17,918.71, the Industrial Index reduced 24.22 points to 3,378.44 and the Plantation Index edged down 5.35 points to 8,062.91.

Among other heavyweights, Tenaga and CIMB were flat at RM15.84 and RM7.16, respectively, while PBBank added four sen to RM22.30 and PChem gained three sen to RM8.06.

Of the actives, PPB lost eight sen to RM17.48, Digi reduced five sen to RM4.95, MISC down nine sen to RM7.45 and Maxis slipped three sen to RM6.05. ― Bernama