KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 24 — Bursa Malaysia bucked the regional trend to stay in the red at mid-afternoon today as trading sentiment on the local bourse remained tepid due to the lack of fresh compelling leads.
At 3.05pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) retreated 1.70 points to 1,567.09 from Wednesday's close of 1,568.79.
The key index opened 0.68 of-a-point higher at 1,569.47.
Market breadth remained negative with losers outnumbered gainers by 428 to 300, while 372 counters unchanged, 897 untraded and 15 others suspended.
Turnover amounted to 1.38 billion shares worth RM869.65 million.
Among heavyweights, Maybank and IHH inched down one sen to RM8.46 and RM5.63 respectively, Tenaga rose six sen to RM13.74 while Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals were flat at RM19.26 and RM7.41 respectively.
Top losers were led by BAT which lost 38 sen to RM19.28, Nestle shed 20 sen to RM144.00, Petronas Gas dropped 18 sen to RM16.46, Telecom erased 17 sen to RM3.75 and KLK was 12 sen lower at RM21.58.
The most actively traded counters continued to be led by Bumi Armada which gained half-a- sen to 45 sen, Cahya Mata Sarawak bagged seven sen to RM2.43 and Widad inched up half-a-sen to 39.5 sen.
Velesto fell half-a-sen to 35 sen while its warrant was unchanged at 14.5 sen.
The FBM 70 weakened 36.37 points to 14,054.84, the FBMT 100 Index declined 15.84 points to 10,970.73 and the FBM Ace was 33.99 points easier at 4,857.21.
The FBM Emas Index decreased 14.55 points to 11,160.63 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index slipped 27.90 points to 11,781.52.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index trimmed 10.65 points to 15,156.44, the Industrial Products & Services Index was 0.05 of-a-point lower at 152.79 and the Plantation Index lost 55.25 points to 6,573.36. — Bernama
