KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21 — Bursa Malaysia remained in negative territory at mid-morning due to selling in finance-related counters.

At 11.12am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 3.54 points lower at 1,599.21 compared with Tuesday’s close of 1,602.75.

The index opened 1.51 points lower at 1,601.24.

On the broader market, losers surpassed gainers 327 to 210, while 332 counters remained unchanged, 1084 untraded and 14 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 782.20 million units worth RM432.48 million.

The heavyweight finance counters, including Maybank, lost one sen to RM8.54, CIMB shed eight sen to RM5.10, with Public Bank and RHB bank both down two sen to RM20.78 and RM5.50 respectively.

As for actives, Meridian shed 2.5 sen to 9 sen, MNC wireless, AirAsiaX, Impiana and KNM all declined five sen to 7.5 sen, 20 sen, 2.5 sen and 37 sen respectively.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index depreciated 18.47 points to 11,860.31, the FBM Emas Index contracted 23.47 points to 11,326.20, the FBMT 100 Index declined 23.69 points to 11,161.07, the FBM Ace lost 7.24 points to 4,600.94, while the FBM 70 was 25.90 points lower at 14,157.34.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index dropped 36.85 points to 15,568.77, the Industrial Products and Services Index was marginally lower by 0.59 point at 149.42 and the Plantation Index declined 5.15 points to 6,756.22. — Bernama