KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 14 ― Bursa Malaysia remained in the red mid-afternoon as weak sentiment continued to weigh on investors'’ appetite, dealers said.
At 3.04pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 11.62 points lower at 1,664.38 from Wednesday’s close of 1,676.00.
Tenaga dragged the composite index down by 2.423 points after falling 24 sen to RM13.22 with 2.23 million shares changing hands.
A dealer said buying interest in Asian bourses was battered by risk aversion that re-emerged following weak economic data from China.
Elsewhere, Japan's Nikkei slumped 2.02 per cent to 21,374.83, Singapore's Straits Times Index gave up 1.08 per cent to 3,077.42 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.54 per cent to 26,116.21.
On the local bourse, the overall market breadth stayed unfavourable with 532 losers and 193 gainers, while 274 counters remained unchanged, 903 untraded and 24 others were suspended.
Volume stood at 988.23 million units valued at RM726.17 million.
Among heavyweights, Maybank eased seven sen to RM9.37, Public Bank lost 26 sen to RM24.72, Petronas Chemicals trimmed four sen to RM9.13 and CIMB slipped three sen to RM5.81.
The FBM Emas Index was 77.01 points lower at 11,430.98, the FBMT 100 Index declined 74.62 points to 11,329.12, the FBM 70 lost 69.54 points to 13,187.82, the FBM Emas Shariah Index edged down 74.68 points to 11,380.49 and the FBM Ace Index erased 125.84 points to 4,334.91.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index gave up 120.25 points to 17,345.54, the Plantation Index trimmed 42.77 points to 6,655.77 and the Industrial Products and Services Index slipped 0.75 of-a-point to 167.03. ― Bernama
