KUALA LUMPUR: – Bursa Malaysia turned lower at mid-morning today on external pressures and amid falling crude oil prices, dealers said.
At 11 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 4.68 points lower at 1,712.37.
A dealer said oil prices declined after Greece’s rejection of bailout conditions, while Iran and global powers try to meet today’s deadline on a nuclear deal.
He said Iran’s Deputy Oil Minister Mansour Moazami has indicated that the country would double oil exports to 2.3 million barrels per day from 1.1 million currently after sanctions on the country are lifted.
“This will put further pressure on the oil price which is already experiencing an oversupply situation,” he added.
Brent crude has declined 3.8 per cent to US$56.50 per barrel.
The FBM Emas Index declined 26.4 points to 11,805.56, the FBMT100 Index dropped 27.05 points to 11,494.3, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index slid 29.68 points to 12,261.79.
The FBM 70 gave up 13.939 points to 12,755.66, while the FBM Ace inched up 0.64 point to 6,175.76.
On a sectoral basis, the Industrial Index edged up 0.44 point to 3,157.98 and the Plantation Index strengthened 13.73 points to 7,433.97.But, the Finance Index shed 65.28 points to 15,387.7.
Market breadth was negative with decliners outpacing gainers 299 to 211, while 284 counters were unchanged, 1,005 untraded and 21 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 613.98 million shares worth RM358.57 million.
Among actives, Scan slipped half a sen to 11 sen, Jaks lost two sen to 81.5 sen and Connectcounty eased one sen to 22.5 sen.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank and Sime Darby fell four sen each to RM9.15 and RM8.53 respectively, and Public Bank declined eight sen to RM18.72.
TNB and Axiata were flat at RM12.62 and RM6.37 respectively. – -- BERNAMA