KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 — Bursa Malaysia turned marginally lower at mid-morning, dragged down by losses in Press Metal and Petronas Gas amid the mixed performance in regional markets.

At 11.04am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 0.58 of-a-point to 1,546.29 from 1,546.87 at yesterday’s close. It opened 3.45 points firmer at 1,550.32.

However, the overall market breadth remained positive with gainers outnumbering losers 585 to 223, while 332 counters were unchanged, 1,133 untraded and 11 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.17 billion units worth RM774.84 million.

Among the heavyweights, Press Metal lost 23 sen to RM6.56, Petronas Gas dipped 42 sen to RM16.54, Maybank eased one sen to RM8.79, while Public Bank gained five sen to RM4.35 and Petronas Chemicals rose 32 sen to RM10.02.

As for the actives, Sapura Energy firmed half-a-sen to four sen, Dataprep widened seven sen to 33.5 sen, DNex rose 2.5 sen to 96 sen, while Vinvest Capital shredded half-a-sen to 24 sen and SMTrack stood at 10.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM ACE strengthened 87.91 points to 5,112.85, the FBM 70 improved 227.68 to 12,692.98, the FBM Emas Index inched up 45.52 points to 10,923.84, the FBMT 100 Index ticked up 37.24 points to 10,631.04, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index expanded 23.02 points to 11,577.78.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index perked 108.51 points to 15,878.88, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 1.55 higher at 204.74, while the Plantation Index declined 91.41 points to 8,158.76. — Bernama