KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 18 — Bursa Malaysia ended broadly lower at mid-morning, with selling pressure seen across the board, led by the financial services sector.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 22.99 points to 1,651.36 from yesterday's close of 1,674.35.

It opened 2.49 points better at 1,676.84 and moved between 1,649.47 and 1,678.11 throughout the morning trading session.

Overall market breadth was also negative as losers surpassed gainers 883 to 260, while 430 counters were unchanged, 594 untraded and 47 others suspended.

Volume stood at 5.14 billion units worth RM2.05 billion.

Meanwhile, Asian peers adopted a cautious tone, as sentiments swung between optimism due to the Covid-19 vaccine roll out and the ensuing global economic recovery, and concerns about rising infection rates.

Regionally, China's Shanghai Stock Exchange rose 0.13 per cent to 3,409.31, Singapore's Straits Times Index eased 0.13 per cent to 2,854.21, Japan’s Nikkei 225 shed 0.12 per cent to 26,774.73, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slipped 0.67 per cent to 26,499.90 and South Korea’s Kospi improved 0.16 per cent to 2,774.94.

A dealer said most Asian markets failed to track the United States stock markets which closed at fresh records, on the back of optimism on the US$900 billion stimulus package which are seen to be imminent.

On local front, Bursa Malaysia opened slightly higher but retreated after five minutes of trading, and has continued to trend lower on selling pressure in heavyweight stocks, she noted.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank slipped 18 sen to RM8.52, Public Bank fell 78 sen to RM20.72, Tenaga shed six sen to RM10.74, Petronas Chemicals slid seven sen to RM7.49 and Top Glove reduced eight sen to RM6.62.

Of the actives, VSolar and Techna-X added one sen each to five sen and 19.5 sen, respectively, MNC Wireless edged up half-a-sen to 5.5 sen, Hiap Teck Venture shed three sen to 41 sen while Focus Dynamics’ warrant was flat at 3.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 148.82 points lower at 11,882.89, the FBMT 100 Index slipped 149.10 points to 11,645.10, the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 107.26 points to 13,311.02, the FBM 70 dropped 143.90 points to 15,223.94, and the FBM ACE lost 19.92 points to 10,583.34.

Meanwhile, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 1.16 point to 174.58, the Plantation Index reduced 70.76 points to 7,358.62, while the Financial Services Index decreased 293.01 points to 15,433.20. — Bernama