KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 ― Bursa Malaysia remained in the negative territory at mid-afternoon with the key index declining by 0.58 per cent ahead of the weekend.

At 3.05pm, the FBM KLCI shed 8.24 points to 1,402.74, from yesterday's close of 1,410.98, after opening 0.15 of-a-point higher at 1,411.13

On the broader market, losers trounced gainers 466 to 299, while 412 counters were unchanged, 1,096 untraded, and 11 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 1.92 billion units worth RM1.08 billion.

Among heavyweights, MISC added one sen to RM7.17, Hong Leong Bank was flat at RM4.70, Maybank fell four sen to RM8.45, Public Bank slipped five sen to RM3.90, CIMB went down three sen to RM5.18, and TNB gave up two sen to RM9.54.

As for the actives, Dagang NeXchange rose three sen to 59 sen, Careplus was flat at 33.5 sen, Revenue Group slid two sen to 28 sen, Computer Forms reduced by four sen to 31 sen, and Hong Seng Consolidated inched down half-a-sen to 13 sen.

On the index board, the FBM 70 Index trimmed 39.32 points to 13,349.26, the FBM Emas Index slid 52.67 points to 10,284.38, and the FBMT 100 Index dipped 51.58 points to 9,977.59.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index sank 40.35 points to 10,630.19 and the FBM ACE Index dropped 27.65 points to 5,287.0.

Sector-wise, the Energy Index was 1.60 points easier at 809.65, the Financial Services Index shaved off 97.94 points to 15,468.21, the Plantation Index decreased 61.96 points to 6,707.55, while the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.79 of-a-point to 166.38. ― Bernama