KUALA LUMPUR, July 18 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia remained in the red in mid-afternoon trade, weighed down by continued selling of shares in Petronas Chemicals (PetChem) following its downgrade by Citi on Tuesday.

The local market was also dragged down by palm oil-related counters due to news that India was mulling over an increase in duty on Malaysian palm oil products.

The FBM Palm Oil Index, which measures the performance of palm oil counters as well as crude palm oil futures, was down 2.22 per cent or 277.24 points to 12,214.72 from 12,491.96 yesterday.

At 3.01pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 5.11 points lower at 1,652.42 from 1,657.53 at Tuesday’s close.

It opened 0.27 point higher at 1,657.80 today.

The overall market was negative with 522 losers to 221 advancers, while 364 counters were unchanged, 784 untraded and 21 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 2.0 billion units worth RM1.02 billion.

Top heavyweight losers include PetChem which lost 28 sen to RM7.64 as well as Maxis, Genting Malaysia and Dialog which fell four sen to RM5.60, RM3.34 and RM3.46, respectively.

Among the palm oil-related counters, Kuala Lumpur Kepong was down four sen at RM23.96, Sime Darby Plantation slid seven sen to RM4.74 and Batu Kawan shed 28 sen to RM16.42.

The FBM Emas Index dropped 41.10 points to 11,736.48, while the FBMT 100 Index dipped 35.62 points to 11,565.93.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index was 62.86 points weaker at 12,086.00 and the FBM Ace was down 11.19 points at 4,658.32, while the FBM 70 slid 44.90 points to 14,808.38.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index eased 5.38 points to 16,586.18, the Plantation Index was 31.97 points weaker at 6,844.06 and the Industrial Products & Services Index shed 2.13 points to 155.44. — Bernama