KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 22 ― Bursa Malaysia remained in the negative territory at mid-afternoon today on cautious sentiment, with the key index declining by 0.18 per cent dragged down by selling in selected heavyweights led by banking stocks.

At 3pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 2.98 points to 1,579.71 from yesterday's close of 1,582.69. The index opened 2.75 points lower at 1,579.94.

Maybank eased eight sen to RM8.72, Public Bank was down two sen to RM4.35, CIMB slid five sen to RM5.52, and Hong Leong Bank shed four sen to RM19.96.

Market breadth was negative with decliners outpacing advancers 709 to 282, while 349 counters were unchanged, 908 untraded, and nine others suspended.

Turnover stood at 2.87 billion units worth RM1.82 billion.

Among other heavyweights, Petronas Chemicals gained two sen to RM9.14, Press Metal added 23 sen to RM6.88, while IHH Healthcare dropped nine sen to RM6.30.

As for the actives, Ta Win shed 1.5 sen to 16.5 sen, DNeX eased four sen to RM1.14 and AT Systematization fell half-a-sen to 2.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM ACE slipped 111.40 points to 6,058.49, FBM 70 decreased 177.31 points to 13,458.48, FBMT 100 Index slid 47.60 points to 10,947.91, FBM Emas Shariah Index erased 30.57 points to 11,961.68, and the FBM Emas Index dipped 49.69 points to 11,272.07.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index declined 109.77 points to 16,305.07, while the Industrial Products and Services Index was 1.05 points higher at 208.88, and the Plantation Index gained 89.41 points to 7,875.23. ― Bernama