KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 19 ― Bursa Malaysia remained lower at mid-afternoon today, dampened by selling in heavyweights amid weaker external sentiment.

At 3pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,730.8, down 7.21 points, from 1,738.01 yesterday.

The index opened 4.30 points lower at 1,733.71.

On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 580 to 185 while 314 counters were unchanged, 820 untraded and 61 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.64 billion shares worth RM1.13 billion.

Among heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM9.60 while Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals lost four sen each to RM24.98 and RM9.39 respectively, TNB declined two sen to RM14.56 and CIMB eased three sen to RM6.

For actives, MyEG fell 37 sen to RM1.13, Datasonic fell 20 sen to 49.5 sen and Sapura Energy slipped half-a-sen to 34 sen.

Iris gained three sen to 17.5 sen and K1 climbed half-a-sen to 27.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index contracted 69.91 points to 11,961.33, the FBMT 100 Index decreased 62.95 points to 11,792.04 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 104.05 points to 11,936.04.

The FBM Ace Index erased 28.40 points to 5,068.57 and the FBM70 shed 127.22 points to 13,769.55.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index declined 7.93 points to 7,378.96, the Industrial Products and Services Index lost one point to 172.16 and the Financial Services Index decreased 49.08 points to 17,533.89. ― Bernama