KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 — Bursa Malaysia remained in negative territory at mid-afternoon today as selling on consumer product and services and financial counters pushed the Composite Index down by 0.14 per cent.

99 Speed Mart trimmed 24 sen to RM3.71, while Maybank slid 12 sen to RM11.94, and CIMB dipped six sen to RM8.40. These three counters contributed 7.17 points to the index. 

At 3 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 2.39 points to 1,737.15, compared with Friday’s close of 1,739.54.

The benchmark index had opened 1.12 points higher at 1,740.66.

The broader market was negative with losers edging gainers 462 to 392, while 544 counters were unchanged. A total of 1,339 counters remained untraded, and 11 were suspended.

Market turnover stood at 1.31 billion shares worth RM1.13 billion.

Among heavyweights, Public Bank gained one sen to RM5.05, Tenaga Nasional added 18 sen to RM14.14, Press Metal Aluminium was nine sen up to RM7.66, while IHH Healthcare dropped 10 sen to RM8.73.

On the most active list, Hong Seng gained half a sen to one sen, Zetrix AI inched up 4.5 sen to 84.5 sen, Tanco gained three sen to RM1.44 and Mega Fortris was 3.5 sen higher at 92 sen.

Among top gainers were Malaysian Pacific Industries, which was up 52 sen to RM30.30, MNRB added 25 sen to RM2.71, Petronas Gas rose 24 sen to RM18.46 and IOI Properties edged up 17 sen to RM3.48.

The top losers were Batu Kawan, which fell 22 sen to RM19.52, Alliance Bank was 20 sen lower to RM5.09, Allianz Malaysia slipped 16 sen to RM22.34 and Hong Leong Bank dipped 14 sen to RM23.98.

On the index board, the FBM Top 100 Index shed 10.34 points to 12,554.47, the FBM Emas Index lost 6.44 points to 12,731.76, while the FBM Mid 70 Index advanced 16.58 points to 17,586.25, the FBM Emas Shariah Index bagged 38.93 points to 12,260.94 and the FBM ACE Index inched up 2.27 points to 4,743.32.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index slumped 143.14 points to 21,380.74, and the Plantation Index edged down 26.03 points to 8,350.90, while the Industrial Products and Services Index was 1.70 points higher at 176.78 and the Energy Index gained 2.34 points to 753.44. — Bernama