KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 2 ― Bursa Malaysia turned red at mid-morning on selling pressure, tracking the poor regional market sentiment, a dealer said.

At 11.13am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 15.64 points to 1,674.94 from Monday's close of 1,690.58.

The market was closed on Tuesday for New Year.

Earlier, the local bourse opened 2.03 points better at 1,693.51.

Market breadth was negative with 385 losers to 181 gainers, while 246 counters were unchanged, 1,045 untraded and 20 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 879.04 million shares worth RM314.35 million.

The dealer said besides Bursa Malaysia, other Asian exchanges also witnessed a downtrend on the first trading day of 2019.

"It was mainly due to the disappointing Chinese economic data, which influenced the mood and erased the earlier gains,” he said.

Among heavyweights, Maybank declined 10 sen to RM9.40, Public Bank went down six sen to RM24.70, Tenaga dropped 14 sen to RM13.46 and Petronas Chemicals was eight sen lower at RM9.21.

Of actives, Sumatec Resources rose half-a-sen to 1.5 sen, My EG eased 3.5 sen to 94 sen, Prestariang shed half-a-sen to 45 sen and Hubline was flat at 4.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index decreased 100.83 points to 11,572.53,  the FBMT 100 Index declined 102.16 points to 11,341.45 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index depreciated 125.52 points to 11,378.91.

The FBM Ace Index was 29.37 points lower at 4,288.12 and the FBM 70 lost 101.35 points to 12,973.84.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index erased 93.22 points to 17,203.25 and the Plantation Index declined 50.11 points to 6,852.85 and the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 0.91 point to 165.58. ― Bernama