KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 6 — Bursa Malaysia extended its earlier losses to the mid-afternoon, with the key index remaining in negative territory as weak market sentiment hurt buying interest.

At 3pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 5.49 points to 1,490.29 from Thursday’s close of 1,495.78.

On the broader market, losers outnumbered gainers 479 versus 398, while 432 counters were unchanged, 884 untraded and 11 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 2.82 billion units worth RM1.4 billion.

A dealer said concerns over the rising number of daily Covid-19 cases in the country clouded sentiment among investors, with some of them already on the sidelines ahead of the weekend.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank shed five sen to RM7.99, Public Bank slipped one sen to RM3.95, Petronas Chemicals and CIMB trimmed two sen each to RM7.98 and RM4.53 respectively, Tenaga Nasional lost six sen to RM9.66 while IHH added one sen to RM5.73.

Among the actives, Dagang Nexchange rose eight sen to 83.5 sen, Kanger inched down half-a-sen to six sen while Vsolar was flat at 1.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 22.94 points weaker at 10,957.8, the FBMT 100 Index erased 27.48 points to 10,667.36, the FBM Emas Shariah Index contracted 30.56 points to 12,038.17 and the FBM ACE shed 14.18 points to 7,158.14.

However, the FBM 70 bagged 8.37 points to 14,565.36.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index fell 42.05 points to 14,714.8, the Plantation Index gave up 9.72 points for 6,088.2, while the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.48 of-a-point to 188.52. — Bernama