KUALA LUMPUR, May 7 — Bursa Malaysia remained easier at mid-afternoon on lack of buying momentum as most investors adopted a "wait-and-see” approach ahead of the elections on Wednesday.

At 3.05pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,842.56, down 12.14 points from last Friday’s close of 1,841.83.

The index opened 0.73 of-a-point higher at 1,842.56.

Market breadth was negative with losers outnumbering gainers 732 to 142 with 325 counters unchanged, 662 counters untraded and 15 others were suspended.

Volume stood at 1.28 billion units valued at RM1.04 billion.

Of heavyweights, Maybank and Tenaga lost eight sen each to RM10.54 and RM16.00, respectively, Public Bank declined 10 sen to RM23.70, Petronas Chemicals trimmed three sen to RM8.42 and CIMB was nine sen weaker at RM6.68.

For actives, Borneo Oil and MQtech were unchanged at eight sen and six sen, respectively,  Sapura Energy inched down 1.5 sen to 64 sen while Nexgram and Sumatec shed half-a-sen each to six sen and four sen, respectively.

Among losers, Nestle declined 70 sen to RM135.10, Dutch Lady decreased 46 sen to RM66.50, Panasonic Manufacturing contracted 34 sen to RM34.76, Kluang Rubber was 30 sen lower at RM4.00 and Petronas Dagangan was 28 sen easier at RM26.52.

The FBM Emas Index retreated 96.38 points to 12,762.91, the FBMT 100 Index declined 87.52 points to 12,581.82, the FBM Emas Shariah Index gave up 105.55 points to 12,981.89, the FBM Ace contracted 128.81 points to 5,099.36 and the FBM 70 lost 119.49 points to 15,159.39.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Index shed 17.56 points to 3,187.47, the Finance Index was 142.51 points lower at 17,806.87 and the Plantation Index gave up 65.80 points to 7,839.91. — Bernama