KUALA LUMPUR, March 19 — Bursa Malaysia was lower at mid-morning, led by energy and technology counters amid weaker oil prices and slump in the overnight tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite.

At 11am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 2.65 points to 1,625.34 from yesterday's close of 1,627.99.

The index was 3.05 points higher to 1,631.04 at 9am, and started to retreat one minute after opening.

On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 634 to 300, while 404 counters were unchanged, 909 untraded and 55 others suspended.

Total volume stood at 3.78 billion shares worth RM1.66 billion. 

Among heavyweights, MISC was 13 sen lower at RM6.84, Press Metal lost 14 sen to RM10.02 and PChem dropped four sen to RM8.15.

In contrast, Maybank and IHH gained four sen each to RM8.41 and RM5.39 respectively, while Maxis and Digi rose five sen and three sen to RM4.68 and RM3.71, respectively.

 As for active counters, Macpie added 27.5 sen to 57 sen, Widad slipped three sen to 60.5 sen, and Dagang NeXchange rose one sen to 97 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index weakened 32.32 points to 11,918.79, the FBMT 100 eased 28.85 points to 11,596.75, and the FBM Emas Shariah dipped 37.75 points to 13,200.39.

The FBM 70 reduced 77.56 points to 15,687.66 and the FBM ACE improved 96.24 points to 10,733.59.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index shed 2.73 points to 15,565.19, the Plantation Index inched down 13.61 points to 7,146.18 and the Industrial Products and Services Index lost 1.07 points to 192.90. — Bernama