KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 19 ― Bursa Malaysia continued to remain in the red at mid-afternoon, amid cautious market sentiment with investors closely monitoring corporate results.
A dealer said the local bourse also tracked the overnight losses in the US stock market, with smartphone maker Apple Inc announcing that it had not met the sales target for the quarter due to production delays, no thanks to the coronavirus outbreak.
At 3pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) erased 5.71 points to 1,531.37 from yesterday's close of 1,537.08, after opening 2.14 points better at 1,539.22 this morning.
On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 412 to 356, with 357 counters unchanged, 848 untraded and 40 others suspended.
Turnover amounted to 1.64 billion shares worth RM1.12 billion.
Among the heavyweights on Bursa Malaysia, Maybank fell seven sen to RM8.40, Tenaga inched down two sen to RM12.58 but Public Bank jumped 22 sen to RM17.92 and Petronas Chemicals was two sen higher at RM6.50.
Of the actives, Powerwell improved four sen to 34 sen, Sapura Energy inched up half-a-sen to 24.5 sen, Foundpac gained 2.5 sen to 97.5 sen while COC was flat at five sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index fell 33.21 points to 10,966.08, the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 64.97 points to 11,691.26 and the FBMT 100 Index gave up 35.40 points to 10,754.44.
The FBM 70 dropped 26.74 points to 13,916.29 but the FBM Ace rose 76.94 points to 5,617.54.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 0.02 point to 146.02, the Financial Services Index added 8.00 points to 14,645.73 but the Plantation Index gave up 71.67 points to 7,164.96. ― Bernama
