KUALA LUMPUR, April 25 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia remained in the red across the board at midday in line with the performance of other Asian bourses.

At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,712.62, down 5.34 points, from Friday’s close of 1,717.96.

After opening 3.58 points weaker at 1,714.38 this morning, the index moved between 1,712.04 and 1,717 throughout the morning session.

Losers outpaced gainers 438 to 222 with 348 counters unchanged, 724 counters untraded and 8 others were suspended.    

Turnover stood at 1.07 billion shares worth RM569.87 million.

A dealer said investors were cautious as they awaited central bank meetings in the United States and Japan this week that were expected to hold clues to future policy moves.

“Market participants are still looking for new catalyst to determine market direction,” he said.

Regional markets were mostly lower with Japan’s Nikkei 225 giving up 0.59 per cent to 17,469.24 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 0.57 per cent to 21,344.65 and Singapore’s Straits Times weakened 0.80 per cent to 2,916.98.

Heavyweights, Maybank fell five sen to RM9.00, TNB and IHH declined 10 sen each to RM14.40 and RM6.71, respectively, and Public Bank eased four sen to RM19.10.

Among top losers were Globetronics, which fell 65 sen to RM4.64, followed by Inari and Panasonic Manufacturing which shed 12 sen each to RM2.90 and RM28.70, respectively.

Top gainers, Dutch Lady rose 50 sen to RM54.10, British American Tobacco added 48 sen to RM54.98 and Spring Galleries Bhd gained 27 sen to RM1.23.

Among actives, Eka Noodles added 1.5 sen to 12.5 sen, Spring Gallery warrant gained eight sen to 29.5 sen while Sona Petroleum warrant shed half-a-sen to three sen.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index slid 43.65 points to 11,894.84, the FBMT100 Index decreased 41.46 points to 11,586.52 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index shed 32.70 points to 12,455.01.

The FBM70 fell 66.35 points to 13,194.98 while the FBM Ace added 18.58 points to 5,764.18.

On a sectorial basis, the Finance Index lost 85.75 points to 14,822.90, the Plantation Index contracted 5.50 points to 7,745.36 and the Industrial Index shed 3.18 points to 3,267.77. — Bernama