KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 ― Bursa Malaysia stayed lower at mid-morning, dragged down by selling pressure in selected heavyweights, said an analyst.

At 11am, the benchmark index fell by 9.56 points to 1,394.37 from yesterday's close of 1,403.93.

The key index opened 3.11 points easier at 1,400.82.

In the broader market, decliners trumped gainers 642 to 120, while 264 counters were unchanged, 1,241 untraded and 21 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.22 billion units valued at RM574.54 million.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank lost four sen to RM8.31, CIMB declined eight sen to RM5.15 and TNB went down by seven sen to RM9.35, while Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals were flat at RM3.95 and RM7, respectively.

Among the actives, Metronic Global inched up half-a-sen to two sen, SMRT Holdings added 1.5 sen to 53 sen and Capital A slipped 2.5 sen to 77.5 sen, while Icon Offshore and Hong Seng Consolidated were flat at 9.5 sen and 15 sen, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index narrowed 84.55 points to 10,176.82, the FBM 70 Index dipped 139.73 points to 13,029.31, the FBMT 100 Index weakened 76.68 points to 9,874.88, the FBM Emas Shariah Index contracted 96.97 points to 10,462.39 and the FBM ACE Index shrank by 102.91 points to 5,173.44.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index dropped 89.38 points to 15,393.07, the Energy Index slid 31.72 points to 806.28, the Plantation Index lost 39.94 points to 6,682.37, and the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 1.56 points to 168.00. ― Bernama