KUALA LUMPUR, April 16 ― Bursa Malaysia stayed in the red at mid-afternoon, with decliners outnumbering gainers on selling pressure across the board, due to the negative sentiment amidst the Middle East conflict.

Selling pressure, particularly in the utilities counters ― YTL Corp, YTL Power and Tenaga Nasional - dragged the composite index down by a combined 4.93 points.

At 3pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 5.46 points to 1,537.07 from yesterday's close of 1,542.53.

The benchmark index opened 1.45 points lower at 1,541.08.

The market breadth was negative with decliners leading gainers 1,172 to 127, while 268 counters were unchanged, 785 untraded and 11 suspended.

Turnover amounted to 3.84 billion units worth RM2.35 billion.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank slipped four sen to RM9.61, Public Bank eased one sen to RM4.11, CIMB edged down five sen to RM6.53, Tenaga Nasional shed 14 sen to RM11.46 and Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM6.80.

Among the actives, TWL Holdings, Sapura Energy and Velesto Energy inched down by half-a-sen each to three sen, 4.5 sen and 27 sen, respectively.

MRCB declined three sen to 66 sen and Bina Puri Holdings was flat at eight sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index dropped 79.03 points to 11,521.17, the FBMT 100 Index declined 62.37 points to 11,176.69 and the FBM ACE Index was weaker by 106.68 points to 4,889.79.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index slipped 63.85 points to 11,692.73 and the FBM 70 Index shaved 182.18 points to 15,977.67.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index reduced 113.07 points to 17,056.08, the Plantation Index trimmed 35.69 points to 7,396.93, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 1.78 points to 182.04 and the Energy Index shed 17.77 points to 948.72. ― Bernama