KUALA LUMPUR, July 12 — Bursa Malaysia continued to trade lower at mid-afternoon on lack of buying support amid better year-on-year data on the country’s manufacturing sales data, Industrial Production Index (IPI) and wholesale and retail trade data for the country in May 2021.

At 3.22pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) dipped 10.49 points to 1,510.09 from Friday’s close of 1,520.58.

The market bellwether opened 1.65 points up at 1,522.23.

On the broader market, losers surpassed gainers 736 to 205, while 380 counters were unchanged, 896 untraded and 10 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 3.2 billion units worth RM1.67 billion.

An analyst said investors are still digesting the data and information that was released by the Statistics Department.

“I hope the improved data might help ease some of the selling pressure in the local equity market,” said the analyst.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank fell six sen to RM8.07, Public Bank gained one sen to RM4.07, Petronas Chemicals declined four sen to RM8.02, TNB dropped three sen to RM9.66 and IHH Healthcare added one sen to RM5.62.

Among the actives, MPay was flat at 25 sen, YBS surged 7.5 sen to 43 sen, and Serba Dinamik fell one sen to 44.5 sen.

Meanwhile, Bursa Malaysia has issued an unusual market activity (UMA) query to UMS Holdings Bhd on the sharp increase in the price and volume of UMS shares recently.

“Investors are advised to take note of the company’s reply to the UMA query which will be posted at Bursa Malaysia’s website under the company announcements, http://www.bursamalaysia.com/market/listed-companies/company-announcements/ when making their investment decision,” said Bursa Malaysia in the company’s filing.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 82.99 points lower at 10,987.12, the FBMT 100 Index narrowed 76.76 points to 10,705.16, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 120.99 points to 11,989.79.

The FBM ACE dipped 177.98 points to 6,997.06 and the FBM 70 went down 111.27 points to 14,213.66.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index contracted 33.17 points to 14,922.46, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 2.04 points to 185.48 and the Plantation Index lost 58.62 points to 6,231.81. — Bernama