KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 15 — Bursa Malaysia turned lower at mid-morning amid cautious sentiment in the market ahead of major central bank meetings and lingering worries over the spread of the Omicron variant.

At 11.25am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 1.87 points to 1,479.05 compared with 1,480.92 at Tuesday’s close. The index opened 0.93 of-a-point better at 1,481.85

On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 375 to 288, while 377 counters were unchanged, 1,277 untraded and 20 others suspended

Turnover stood at 1.01 billion units valued at RM529.66 million.

Among the heavyweights, Public Bank and IHH Healthcare shed one sen each to RM3.99 and RM6.49, respectively, while Maybank, Petronas Chemicals and Tenaga were flat at RM8.09, RM8.61 and RM9.23, respectively.

Of the actives, ATA IMS added 3.5 sen to 58.5 sen, Pelikan gained 1.5 sen to 55.5 sen, and Pasukhas slipped half-a-sen to three sen, while BCM Alliance and Pemaju Industries were flat at 2.5 sen and four sen, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 1.58 points better at 10,794.77, the FBMT 100 Index lifted 3.03 points to 10,489.88, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index improved 1.94 points to 11,617.97.

The FBM 70 rose 68.92 points to 13,943.12 and the FBM ACE bagged 1.74 points to 6,187.24.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.35 of-a-point to 193.68 and the Financial Services Index gained 7.90 points to 15,086.54, but the Plantation Index lost 28.77 points to 6,401.73. — Bernama