KUALA LUMPUR, March 29 — Bursa Malaysia remained bearish at mid-afternoon on lack of positive catalysts.

At 3.06pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI eased 1.25 points to 1,600.17 compared with Friday’s close of 1,601.42.

The index opened 2.17 points better at 1,603.59 but ended the morning session lower.

On the broader market, losers thumped gainers 627 to 391, while 433 counters were unchanged, 781 untraded and 51 others suspended.

Total volume stood at 4.57 billion shares worth RM2.27 billion.

Brent crude slumped 1.69 per cent to US$63.48 per barrel after giant container ship The Ever Given was refloated after blocking the Suez Canal since March 23.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank advanced six sen to RM8.31, Public Bank gained two sen to RM4.21, Petronas Chemicals jumped 20 sen to RM8.10, TNB advanced eight sen to RM10.88, IHH Healthcare declined eight sen to RM5.33, CIMB trimmed three sen to RM4.41 and Top Glove shed 11 sen to RM5.04.

As for the active counters, Berjaya Corp improved two sen to 32.5 sen, Widad expanded eight sen to 63.5 sen, Straits Inter Logistics was one sen higher at 24.5 sen, Macpie lost 14.5 sen to 32 sen, Fintec edged down half-a-sen to 6.5 sen, and Dagang Nexchange fell 3.5 sen to 91 sen.

On the index board, the FBMT 100 was down 1.98 points to 11,442.0, the FBM Emas Shariah slipped 6.73 points to 13,071.43, the FBM Emas Index eased 4.36 points to 11,773.93, and the FBM ACE shrank 67.03 points to 10,450.08, but the FBM 70 gained 24.09 points to 15,574.55.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index advanced 38.46 points to 15,338.75, the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.90 of-a-point to 192.31, while the Plantation Index lost 22.37 points to 7,078.08. — Bernama