KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 15 — Bursa Malaysia remained in negative territory at mid-afternoon due to continuous selling across the board and dragged down mainly by losses in finance-linked heavyweights. 

At 3.05pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 8.83 points lower at 1,591.48 compared with yesterday’s close of 1,600.31. 

The benchmark index opened 15.40 points lower at 1,584.91.

Analysts said the market movement was in line with regional peers following the steep drop of 800.49 points in the overnight Dow Jones Industrial Average. 

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The Straits Times Index was 37.40 points lower at 3,110.20, Japan's Nikkei 225 shrank 249.48 points to 20,405.65 and the Jakarta Composite Index fell 46.88 points to 6,220.46. 

On Bursa Malaysia, losers trounced gainers 672 to 138, with 277 counters unchanged, 846 untraded and 18 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.32 billion units worth RM1.06 billion. 

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Heavyweights Public Bank dropped 12 sen to RM20.68, Maybank erased five sen to RM8.54, CIMB lost seven sen RM5.02, Hong Leong Bank dropped 32 sen to RM17.10 and Hong leong Financial reduced 24 sen to RM17.02. 

Of the active stocks, Bumi Armada, Minda Global, Ekovest and MNC Wireless slide one sen to 21.5 sen, 10 sen, 81 sen and seven sen, respectively, while Genting Malaysia shed two sen to RM3.09. 

The FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 69.56 to 11,772.29, the FBM 70 gave up 132.08 points to 14,047.13, the FBM Emas Index went down 74.71 points to 11,261.27, the FBMT 100 Index was 71.64 points lower at 11,099.33, and the FBM Ace lost 78.21 points to 4,563.65.  

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 2.02 points lower at 149.13 and the Plantation Index dipped 29.30 points to 6,692.70. — Bernama