KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 ― Bursa Malaysia's barometer index and the broader market remained weak at mid-morning weighed down by lack of buying catalysts and cautious market sentiment amid continued political developments..

At 11.02am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) dipped 11.20 points to 1,605.53 after closing at an intraday low of 1,616.73 yesterday.

The index was 0.05 of-a-point better at 1,616.78 at 9am and turned red 30 seconds after the trade kickstarted.

On the broader market, losers thumped gainers 637 to 291, while 422 counters were unchanged, 860 untraded and 11 others suspended.

Total volume stood at 2.71 billion shares worth RM1.42 billion.

In a note today, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said the FBM KLCI retreated for the second session in line with the regional weakness.

"We reckon there will be some bargain-hunting activities emerging on the local bourse, mirroring overnight gains on Wall Street. We believe buying interest could emerge in the technology sector following the overnight rally in Nasdaq,” it added.

Commodities wise, Brent oil price remain sideways while crude palm oil price (CPO) surged and traders may also put plantation stocks or the proxies such as process equipment players on their radar, given the surge in CPO price.

"Meanwhile, we believe the recovery-theme sectors such as consumer products, transportation and logistics, and construction will still be favourable moving forward,” it said.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank lost four sen to RM8.29, PBBank erased one sen to RM4.21, PChem declined 11 sen to RM1.34, while Tenaga and IHH were flat at RM10.76 and RM5.31, respectively.

As for the active counters, BJCorp gained four sen to 26.5 sen, Widad advanced 6.5 sen to 50 sen, Macpie was half-a-sen better at 51.5 sen, while its warrant was half-a-sen easier at nine sen.

Other active counters, G3 added two sen to 23 sen and DNex was three sen higher at 89.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index weakened 61.47 points to 11,799.47, the FBMT 100 eased 63.08 points to 11,476.14, and the FBM Emas Shariah shed 66.14 points to 13,105.28.

The FBM 70 reduced 19.98 points to 15,605.03 while the FBM ACE fell 73.49 points to 10,579.17.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index shed 57.25 points to 15,369.18, and the Industrial Products and Services Index fell 0.88 of-a-point to 192.28.

The Plantation Index inched up 6.69 points to 7,157.09. ― Bernama