KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 19 ― Bursa Malaysia continued to trend lower at mid-afternoon today, dragged down mainly by selling in selected blue-chips, led by MAHB and TM.

At 3pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,702.18, down 4.20 points from Friday’s close of 1,706.38.

The index opened 6.43 points stronger at 1,712.81 today.

Market breadth remained bearish with losers outnumbering gainers 442 to 275, with 321 counters unchanged, 842 untraded and 31 others suspended.

Volume stood at 984.24 million units valued at RM741.73 million.

Bursa Malaysia's decline, however, was capped by gains in key heavyweights such as Maybank and Public Bank which each adding one sen and eight sen to RM9.46 and RM24.70, respectively.

Among heavyweights, Petronas Chemicals and Dialog Group lost nine sen each to RM9.31 and RM3.20, respectively, IOI Corporation deducted eight sen to RM4.31, TM contracted 12 sen to RM2.26, and MAHB slid 19 sen to RM7.97.

Of actives, TATT Giap gained half-a-sen to 24 sen, MYEG increased one sen to RM1.14, while Key Alliance reduced half-a-sen to six sen.

The FBM Emas Index reduced 21.68 points to 11,846.37, the FBMT 100 Index fell 22.44 points to 11,684.91 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 37.54 points weaker at 11,918.26.

The FBM 70 slipped 1.92 points to 13,986.78 but the FBM Ace Index was 25.59 points better at 4,970.71.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 0.20 of-a-point to 173.81, the Plantation Index declined 33.16 points to 7,223.48, but the Finance Index rose 41.85 points to 17,343.52. ― Bernama