KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 — Concerns over global equity markets, lower oil prices, rising Covid-19 cases in Europe, and economic sanctions imposed by Western powers on China dragged Bursa Malaysia to remain in the negative territory at mid-morning.

At 11am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 3.24 points to 1,592.05 from 1,595.29 at yesterday's close.

The index was 0.83 of-a-point weaker at 1,591.66 at 9am.

On the broader market, losers thumped gainers 536 to 348, while 441 counters were unchanged, 898 untraded and 11 others suspended.

Total volume stood at 2.88 billion shares worth RM1.26 billion.

In a note today, Public Investment Bank Bhd said the bearish performance of the key index was influenced by global equity benchmarks and oil prices, which fell on Tuesday, while safe-haven assets gained as a prolonged economic lockdown in Germany and the US, and European sanctions on China reduced risk appetite.

"Rising concerns over a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic amid slow vaccine rollouts in Europe hurt oil and travel companies as investors priced in a longer road to economic recovery."

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 308.05 points, or 0.94 per cent, to 32,423.15, S&P 500 lost 30.07 points, or 0.76 per cent, to 3,910.52 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 149.85 points, or 1.12 per cent, to 13,227.70.

"The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.7 per cent after a new round of sanctions aimed at China hit Asian markets,” it said.

Among heavyweights, Maybank erased four sen to RM8.23, PChem and CIMB fell seven sen each to RM7.85 and RM4.36, respectively, while PBBank and Tenaga advanced two sen each to RM4.20 and RM10.72, respectively. 

As for the active counters, GOcean inched up half-a-sen to 6.5 sen, SMI increased six sen to 24 sen, DNex was 3.5 sen higher at 92 sen, DPS added 1.5 sen to 15.5 sen, while Nexgram erased half-a-sen to 4.5 sen. 

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index weakened 26.47 points to 11,702.65, the FBMT 100 eased 25.42 points to 11,378.45, and the FBM Emas Shariah shed 20.18 points to 13,000.70.

The FBM 70 reduced 43.27 points to 15,466.80 while the FBM ACE added 45.35 points to 10,556.96.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index shed 65.83 points to 15,219.39, and the Industrial Products and Services Index fell 1.07 points to 189.35.

The Plantation Index inched up 14.62 points to 7,149.82. — Bernama