KUALA LUMPUR, April 19 — Bursa Malaysia remained lower at mid-afternoon trade amidst mounting concerns over surging COVID-19 cases globally.

At 3pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) decreased 8.16 points to 1,600.22 compared to Friday’s close of 1,608.38.

The barometer index opened 0.27 of-a-point weaker at 1,608.11.

Healthcare index recovered from previous losses, while the transportation, logistics and technology as well as telecommunication and media indices remained in positive territory.

The overall market breadth was negative with losers outpacing gainers 728 to 350, while 363 counters were unchanged, 718 untraded and seven others suspended.

Total volume stood at 5.13 billion shares worth RM2.78 million.

Among the heavyweights, Press Metal dropped five sen to RM5.35, while Top Glove and Genting Malaysia trimmed seven sen to RM5.50 and RM2.85 respectively.

CIMB was four sen easier at RM4.25 and Public Bank lost two sen to RM4.18.

In contrast, Supermax was 21 sen higher at RM5.52 and TM rose five sen to RM5.95.

Among the active counters, Ucrest went up 6.5 sen to 41.5 sen, Focus Dynamics was two sen lower at 13 sen and Key Asic increased 2.5 sen to 17.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 54.24 points weaker at 11,796.54, the FBM Emas Shariah erased 44.12 points to 13,231.32 and the FBMT 100 decreased 49.27 points to 11,454.30.

The FBM 70 slid 31.88 points to 15,637.29 and the FBM ACE dropped 14.27 points to 8,583.08.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index fell 21.41 points to 6,858.64, the Financial Services Index slipped 62 points to 15,013.16, and the Industrial Products and Services Index was lower by 0.80 of-a-point to 196.03. — Bernama