Bursa Malaysia was broadly lower at mid-morning today as weak regional sentiment curbed interest for equities.

At 11.11 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 3.9 points to 1,767.46 from Thursday’s close of 1,771.36.

The benchmark index opened 2.27 points weaker at 1,770.32 this morning.

There were 432 decliners and 207 advancers, while 322 counters were unchanged, 845 counters untraded and 53 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 544.52 million shares worth RM451.75 million.

A dealer said sentiment in the region was clouded by the sluggish overnight Wall Street performance, which ended sharply lower dampened by further selloffs in technology stocks.

Back home, Ajinomoto was the biggest loser after declining 34 sen to RM24.20, followed by BAT and Petronas Gas, which fell 30 sen to RM43.20 and 24 sen to RM18.46 respectively.

Of  the actives, Hiap Teck added one sen to 37.5 sen, Asia Bioenergy inched up half-a-sen to 16.5 sen, while Pasukhas was flat at 19 sen.

Among heavyweights, Maybank gained one sen to RM9.64, Tenaga rose four sen to RM14.18, while both Sime Darby and Petronas Chemicals perked two sen each to RM9.59 and RM7.14 respectively.

CIMB trimmed two sen to RM6.62 but Public Bank was flat at RM20.30.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index fell 26.39 points to 12,605.53, FBMT100 Index lost 25.64 points to 12,242.24, FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 27.46 points to 12,822.53 and the FBM 70 declined 26.42 points to 15,011.82.

The FBM Ace erased 23.77 points to 6,506.58.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Index eased 14.94 points to 3,255.29 and the Plantation Index dropped 33.72 points to 7,899.5 and the Finance Index dipped 22.01 points to 16,778.24. — Bernama