KUALA LUMPUR, March 14 — Bursa Malaysia retreated amidst mixed regional markets as sentiments remained negative, tracking Wall Street’s subdued performance.

At 11.03am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 10.66 points lower at 1,557.56 compared with 1,568.22 at Friday’s close.

The benchmark index opened 2.48 points firmer at 1,570.70.

On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers at 469 versus 260, while 353 counters were unchanged, 1,219 untraded and 13 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.01 billion units valued at RM697.18 million.

In a note, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said it expects the equity market to consolidate over the near term, given the unresolved Russia-Ukraine tension and the monetary policy decision by the United States Federal Open Market Committee which will take place March 15-16, 2022.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB were flat at RM8.91 and RM5.05, respectively, while Public Bank eased three sen to RM4.37, Petronas Chemicals shed nine sen to RM9.61, IHH Healthcare deducted two sen to RM6.39 and Press Metal dropped 33 sen to RM6.17.

Of the actives, Hibiscus Petroleum slid six sen to RM1.12, while Velesto Energy and Green Packet perked half-a-sen each to 11.5 sen and 10 sen, respectively.

On the index board, FBM Emas Index was 74.77 points weaker at 11,039.82, FBM Emas Shariah Index narrowed 81.70 points to 11,681.18, FBM 70 fell 76.86 points to 12,995.88, FBMT 100 Index declined 71.41 points to 10,745.81 and FBM ACE erased 12.74 points to 5,245.74.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 3.32 points to 201.37, the Financial Services Index decreased 76.68 points to 16,173.34 and the Plantation Index gave up 106.07 points to 8,098.63. — Bernama