KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 7 ― Bursa Malaysia remained lower at midafternoon today due to a lack of catalysts ahead of the Chinese New Year long weekend break.

At 3.05pm, the benchmark index fell 1.28 points to 1,511.70 from yesterday’s close of 1,512.98.

The barometer index opened 0.47 of-a-point easier at 1,512.51.

On the broader market, decliners beat gainers 562 to 307 while 438 counters were unchanged, 953 untraded and 10 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 2.26 billion units worth RM1.18 billion.

Among the heavyweights, TNB and CelcomDigi added two sen each to RM10.80 and RM4.21, respectively, Press Metal gained one sen to RM4.66, and Maybank eased four sen to RM9.27.

Public Bank and CIMB both gave up one sen to RM4.38 and RM6.20, respectively.

As for the actives, ACE market debutant AGX increased 1.5 sen to 36.5 sen, TWL was flat at four sen and Reneuco declined three sen to five sen. Velesto and Minetech eased half-a-sen each to 25 sen and 13.5 sen, respectively, and Sarawak Cable gave up five sen to 13 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 19.92 points easier at 11,215.05, the FBMT 100 Index trimmed 16.19 points to 10,883.03 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index shed 31.02 points to 11,237.66.

Meanwhile, the FBM ACE Index went up 2.95 points to 4,711.01 and the FBM 70 Index decreased 51.36 points to 15,109.17.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index dwindled 5.44 points to 7,168.90, and the Financial Services Index was 38.82 points easier at 16,922.49.

The Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 0.375 of-a-point to 171.75, the Property Index shed 8.30 points to 899.34 and the Energy Index dipped 4.69 points to 873.96. ― Bernama