KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 3 ― Bursa Malaysia slipped into the negative territory at mid-morning today despite opening on a positive note, dragged down by selling in heavyweight stocks.

At 11.00am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 4.61 points to 1,533.02 from yesterday's close of 1,537.63. It opened 5.52 points higher at 1,543.15.

On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 524 to 247, while 420 counters were unchanged, 1,084 untraded and 19 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 1.60 billion units worth RM891.26 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd said the FBM KLCI was propped up by bargain hunting activities following the sharp sell-down on Monday.

"We reckon trading to be rather muted today as most will be away for the Deepavali celebration tomorrow. Thus, we expected the index to hover around the 1,530-1,540 range today,” it noted.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank and Tenaga improved two sen each to RM8.01 and RM9.62, respectively, Petronas Chemicals gained three sen to RM8.31, IHH Healthcare rose seven sen to RM6.53 while Public Bank was flat at RM4.04.

Of the actives, Dagang Nexchange reduced 3.5 sen to 79 sen, AirAsia X shed 1.5 sen to four sen, TA Win eased half-a-sen to 15 sen, Sedania perked nine sen to 72 sen, while Sapura Energy was flat at 10 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index decreased 41.51 points to 11,356.89, the FBMT 100 Index declined 31.78 points to 10,985.24, the FBM Emas Shariah Index slipped 58.34 points to 12,399.25, the FBM ACE contracted 40.94 points to 7,081.53, and the FBM 70 reduced 38.63 points to 15,046.67.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.73 of-a-point to 202.62, the Plantation Index gave up 51.39 points to 6,791.53, and the Financial Services Index lost 11.04 points to 15,168.77. ― Bernama