KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 ― Bursa Malaysia extended losses to mid-day today as traders remained on the sidelines following the release of Malaysia's full-year 2016 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data.

Bank Negara Malaysia announced that the economy recorded a full year growth of 4.2 per cent in 2016, lower than the five per cent and six per cent registered in 2015 and 2014 respectively.

At lunch break, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 3.06 points lower at 1,706.73 from yesterday's close of 1,709.79.

The index opened 2.18 points lower at 1,707.61 and moved between 1,705.70 and 1,709.36 during the morning session.

Losers edged gainers 433 to 291 with 379 counters unchanged, 618 untraded and 23 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.09 billion shares worth RM864.45 million.    

A dealer said buying momentum had now entered the US stock market, following better-than-expected US data on inflation and retail sales. This is alongside Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's hint at interest rate hikes, including one possibly in March .

Public Investment Bank Bhd said in a note today that global stocks climbed to a record peak yesterday for the first time since 2015.

In a separate note, Alliance DBS Research said on the local front, market participants were beginning to adopt a conservative approach in their game play after the FBM KLCI rallied more than 40 points over the past two weeks.

“The minority, knowledgeable, well-informed traders apparently are clear about the negative outcome of being emotional.

“So, they want to avoid the stock trading mistake by chasing up the market, even though its sentiment may have improved in recent days,” it said.

Among heavyweights, Tenaga lost four sen to RM13.52, Petronas Chemicals eased two sen to RM7.19, CIMB slid seven sen RM5.10, while Maybank gained one sen to RM8.38.

Among losers, Panasonic Manufacturing fell 56 sen to RM31.40, BAT and Aeon Credit dropped 26 sen each to RM48.74 and RM15.64 and UMW trimmed 20 sen to RM5.50.

For the actives, Asia Bioenergy and IFCA MSC rose one sen each to 75 sen and 52 sen, while Metronic Global eased one sen to 8.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index lost 22.47 points to 12,015.08, the FBMT100 Index declined 22.64 points to 11,693.65 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index eased 10.92 points to 12,539.11.

The FBM70 fell 33.36 points to 13,858.56, the FBM Ace was 25.58 points lower at 5269.58 and the Finance Index gave up 57.89 points for 15,066.28.

However, the Plantation Index improved 2.96 points to 8,204.15 and the Industrial Index gained 4.67 points to 3,278.66. ― Bernama