KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 ― Bursa Malaysia has retreated even further in the afternoon on weak sentiment, contradicting market analysts' expectations of better market performance on the back of the overnight gains on Wall Street and the Nasdaq.

At 3.02pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 13.72 points or 0.84 per cent to 1,603.01 after closing at an intraday low of 1,616.73 yesterday.

The index opened 0.05 of-a-point better at 1,616.78, but subsequently declined, hitting a low of 1,602.92 at one point.

On the broader market, losers surpassed gainers 781 to 289, while 417 counters were unchanged, 723 untraded and 11 others suspended.

Total volume stood at 4.76 billion shares worth RM2.51 billion.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank declined five sen to RM8.28, PBBank was one sen easier at RM4.21, PChem erased 13 sen to RM8.07, Tenaga eased two sen at RM10.74, while IHH was one sen better at RM5.32.

As for the active counters, Dynacia shed two sen to 12.5 sen, BJCorp gained six sen to 28.5 sen and Widad advanced 6.5 sen to 50 sen.

Meanwhile, Macpie's shares lost 7.5 sen to 43.5 sen, though its warrant was 1.5 sen higher at eight sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index weakened 80.67 points to 11,780.27, the FBMT 100 eased 83.38 points to 11,455.84, and the FBM Emas Shariah erased 88.65 points to 13,082.77.

The FBM 70 reduced 56.68 points to 15,568.34, while the FBM ACE dipped 166.70 points to 10,485.96.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index dropped 98.89 points to 15,327.54, the Plantation Index shed 3.28 points to 7,147.12 and the Industrial Products and Services Index dropped 0.87 of-a-point at 192.21. ― Bernama