KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 21 — Bursa Malaysia failed to hold on to gains made at the opening bell and fell below the 1,600 level at mid-morning, with mid and small-capitalisation shares succumbing to selling pressure.

At 11am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) shed 1.66 points to 1,599.88.

The index opened 6.89 points higher at 1,608.43 compared with Wednesday’s close of 1,601.54.

On the broader market, losers surpassed gainers 661 to 289, while 425 counters were unchanged, 746 untraded and 30 others suspended.

Total volume stood at 3.56 billion units worth RM1.51 billion.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank and Tenaga were flat at RM8.09 and RM9.96, respectively.

Public Bank added 18 sen to RM21.50, while PChem slid 14 sen to RM7.40 and Top Glove retreated two sen to RM6.12.

Of the actives, AT Systematization and Fintec Global rose half-a-sen each to 18 sen and eight sen, respectively, while HPP improved 16 sen to 87 sen.

Lambo was flat at three sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index eased 21.9 points to 11,572.76, the FBMT 100 Index was 17.85 points lower at 11,304.01, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 29.23 points weaker at 13,052.13.

The FBM 70 dropped 47.13 points to 14,863.44 and the FBM ACE fell 54.17 points to 10,796.21.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index decreased 1.94 points to 14,874.48 and the Industrial Products and Services Index slipped 1.58 points to 178.18, but the Plantation Index rose 4.82 points to 7,247.61. — Bernama