KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 — Bursa Malaysia turned lower at mid-morning with the benchmark index succumbing to selling pressure in selected heavyweights, particularly consumer-oriented counters.

At 11am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 3.04 points easier at 1,718.89 from Friday’s close of 1,721.93 and after opening 0.72 of-a-point better at 1,722.65.

A decline in Nestle (M) Bhd and British American Tobacco pushed the composite index lower by 1.24 per cent. The stocks declined 50 sen and 30 sen each to RM147.60 and RM32.90 respectively.

Public Investment Bank said in a note, regional bourses finished mixed last Friday with the Nikkei 225 having gained 1.85 per cent and the Hang Seng rose 0.16 per cent, while the Shanghai Composite lost 0.23 per cent.

A dealer said this contributed to the incoherent momentum of the FBM KLCI.

On the broader market, decliners outpaced gainers 322 to 350, while 350 counters were unchanged, 962 untraded and 17 others suspended.

Volume stood at 811.37 million units valued at RM419.79 million.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank rose five sen to RM9.56, Petronas Chemicals edged up one sen to RM8.63, Public Bank declined two sen to RM22.98, CIMB eased six sen to RM5.66, while Tenaga was flat at RM14.64.

Among actives, MRCB trimmed half-a-sen to 68.5 sen, while Vivocom International and Xinghe rose half-a-sen each to six sen and five sen respectively and Sino Hua-An was flat at 31.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index declined 16.2 points to 12,130.01, the FBMT100 Index trimmed 15.55 points to 11,932.48, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 10.72 points weaker at 12,228.03. 

Meanwhile, the FBM Ace Index increased 5.32 points to 5,356.66 and the FBM70 rose 1.44 points to 14,785.07.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Index slid 2.97 points to 3,176.59, the Plantation Index decreased 22.85 points to 7,489.69 and the Finance Index trimmed 23.88 points to 17,010.5. — Bernama