KUALA LUMPUR, July 30 — Bursa Malaysia remained in negative territory at mid-morning today on selling pressure in heavyweights.

At 11.00am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 5.26 points lower at 1,507.67 from Thursday’s close of 1,512.93.

The index opened 0.95 of-a-point easier at 1,511.98.

On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 413 versus 280, while 417 counters were unchanged, 1,096 untraded and 64 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.45 billion units worth RM730.43 million.

Rakuten Research Sdn Bhd, in a note, said the latest developments on the political scene saw the FBM KLCI end in negative territory yesterday.

"We reckoned sentiments would continue to be negatively affected today on heightened political uncertainties.

"Hence, we expect the index to experience more weaknesses today, however, bargain hunting may emerge if the selling is overdone. Therefore, we would expect the index the trend around the 1,500 to 1,515 range today,” it added.

Of the heavyweights, Public Bank added one sen to RM4.00 while both Petronas Chemicals and TNB shed two sen to RM8.09 and RM9.71 respectively.

Maybank and IHH Healthcare were flat at RM8.04 and RM5.79, respectively.

Among the actives, Kanger eased half-a-sen to six sen, Tanco edged up half-a-sen to 21.5 sen, Sersol rose 12.5 sen to 60.5 sen, Scanwolf added 5.5 sen to 47.5 sen, and Sersol warrant gained 15.5 sen to 42.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index lost 34.07 points to 11,037.70, the FBMT 100 Index went down 34.71 points to 10,748.16, and the FBM 70 shed 35.82 points to 14,506.43.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index was 47.59 points lower at 12,122.03.56 but the FBM ACE gained 27.13 points to 7,167.72.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index decreased 17.51 points to 14,762.78, the Plantation Index declined 35.28 points to 6,157.07, while the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.45 of-a-point to 187.54. — Bernama