KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 5 ― Bursa Malaysia was broadly lower at mid-afternoon in sync with Wall Street and regional bourses as investors were cautious amid the continued tension in the Middle East and cloudy interest rate outlook.

At 3.10pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 5.71 points to 1,445.31 from yesterday's close of 1,451.02.

The index opened 0.11 of-a-point higher at 1,451.13.

Market breadth was negative, with decliners beating gainers 518 to 291, while 446 counters were unchanged, 1,059 untraded and 13 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 2.55 billion units worth RM1.2 billion.

Financial counters led the losers among the heavyweights. Public Bank and AMMB decreased four sen each to RM4.24 and RM4.02, respectively, CIMB fell three sen to RM5.75 and Maybank was one sen lower at RM8.99. Meanwhile, RHB Bank bagged three sen to RM5.48.

As for the most active counters, Sapura Energy and Velesto dropped half-a-sen each to 4.0 sen and 21.5 sen, respectively.

Leform gained one sen to 34.5 sen and CSH Alliance was flat at 5.0 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index slipped 28.12 points at 10,655.30, the FBMT 100 Index eased 26.46 points to 10,327.71, the FBM Emas Shariah Index trimmed 20.18 points to 10,801.74 and the FBM ACE Index dropped 28.52 points to 5,087.33.

However, the FBM 70 Index increased by 26.74 points to 14,009.76.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index fell 45.39 points to 16,318.97, the Industrial Products and Services Index shed 1.08 points to 169.19, the Energy Index edged down 6.70 points to 805.51 and the Plantation Index dipped 9.81 points to 6,973.41. ― Bernama