Bursa Malaysia stays in red at mid-afternoon

KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 — Bursa Malaysia remained in the red at mid-afternoon today, as persistent selling in selected finance-related heavyweights continued to push down the key index performance.

At 3.05pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 15.96 points to 1,668.25 from Wednesday’s close of 1,684.21.

The market bellwether opened 3.43 points firmer at 1,687.64.

The decline in the finance-linked heavyweights, namely Public Bank, Hong Leong Bank and Maybank had significantly pulled down the local bourse performance, as the three counters contributed 25.32 points to the Composite Index.

The fall in the blue-chips was led by Public Bank, which wiped out 50 sen to RM23.96, followed by Hong Leong Bank, which lost 40 sen to RM20.40, Maybank declined seven sen to RM9.40, PPB contracted 50 sen to RM17.82 and Petronas Chemicals eased 8.0 sen to RM9.06.

Of the top five losers, Nestle was the biggest decliner, tanking RM2.40 to RM145.30, KLK shedding 52 sen to RM24.46, followed by Public Bank, PPB and Hong Leong Bank.

The most active counters were Sapura Energy, which added half-a-sen to 34.5 sen, while its warrant gained 1.5 sen to 15 sen, Dynaciate inched up half-a-sen to 10 sen, while Perdana Petroleum shrank 1.0 sen to 42 sen and Sino Hua-An was flat at 25.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index fell 91.01 points to 11,669.25, the FBMT 100 Index retreated 89.58 points to 11,524.46 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index weakened 68.17 points to 11,720.12.

The FBM 70 was 25.58 points lower at 14,139.97 and the FBM Ace Index slipped 59.02 points to 4,741.88.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index dipped 194.73 points to 17,249.90, the Plantation Index slumped 100.52 points to 7,203.62 and the Industrial Products and Services Index trimmed 0.87 of-a-point to 169.08. — Bernama