KUALA LUMPUR, March 20 ― Shares on Bursa Malaysia continued to trend lower at mid-morning today as investors remained quiet ahead of the US Federal Reserve's two-day monetary policy meeting mid-week.

At 11am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 4.42 points lower at 1,843.52 from Monday's close of 1,847.94.

The key index opened 2.45 points lower at 1,845.49.

Market breadth was negative, as losers overtook gainers 509 to 145, while 316 counters remained unchanged, 923 untraded and 23 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 673.81 million shares worth RM399.73 million.

Among heavyweights, Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals added two sen each to RM23.14 and RM8.17 respectively and TNB perked eight sen to RM15.78.

CIMB eased one sen to RM7.25, while Maybank was flat at RM10.32.

Of the actively-traded stocks, Goodway perked seven sen to 31 sen and Silver Ridge inched up one sen to 24 sen.

Sapura Energy eased one sen to 48 sen, Sino Huan-an declined 1.5 sen to 39 sen and Frontken slipped two sen to 47 sen.0.

The FBM Emas Index decreased 53.55 points to 12,983.25, the FBMT 100 Index eased 47.25 points to 12,740.34 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 60.1 points to 13,140.25.

The FBM 70 was 114.82 points lower at 15,567.83 and the FBM Ace decreased 51.42 points to 5,866.43.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index declined 44.828 points to 18,015.46 and the Industrial Index trimmed 10.06 points to 3,228.64.But, the Plantation Index was 43.77 points higher at 7,922.98. ― Bernama