KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 ― Bursa Malaysia remained lower at mid-afternoon today on continued profit-taking led by the technology and healthcare counters.

At 3.10pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 5.53 points lower at 1,585.35, from 1,590.88 at yesterday’s close, after opening 2.80 points better at 1.593.68.

On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 460 to 359, while 424 counters were unchanged, 1,078 untraded and 45 others suspended.

Total turnover stood at 1.55 billion worth RM1.30 billion.

OANDA senior market analyst, Asia Pacific, Jeffrey Halley said in a note that regionally, the Asian equity market is content to do some modest rebalancing of positions and risk reduction into the weekend, a theme that is expected to be repeated in the European market this afternoon.

This is on the back of the hawkish Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) tone which announced a dovish interest rate increase and believed it could tighten aggressively while maintaining growth.

Besides, he said, the lack of clarity from the Ukraine-Russia talks was also not providing sufficient catalyst for the market.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank recovered three sen to RM9.01, while Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals fell three sen each to RM4.60 and RM9.39 respectively, IHH Healthcare slipped six sen to RM6.33 and CIMB slid 12 sen to RM5.36.

Tenaga Nasional gained five sen to RM9.13 and Press Metal improved nine sen to RM6.44.

Of the actives, both XOX and AT Systematization were flat each to two sen, while Sapura Energy was flat at 3.5 sen.

On the index board, FBM Emas Index was 32.27 points weaker at 11,242.41, FBM Emas Shariah Index reduced 20.88 points to 11,797.49, FBM 70 fell 52.72 points to 13,305.37, FBMT 100 Index shed 39.33 points to 10,951.30 and FBM ACE dipped 32.86 points to 5,330.96.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 0.93 of-a-point to 203.91 and the Plantation Index recovered 89.72 points to 7,917.14, while the Financial Services Index weakened 96.60 points to 16,698.97. ― Bernama