KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia turned marginally lower at midday due to continuous selling in selected heavyweights, especially in the utilities counters. 

YTL Corp dropped seven sen to RM3.51 and YTL Power International dipped nine sen to RM4.99, dragging down the composite index by 2.57 points. 

At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 0.50 of-a-point to 1,589.87 from last Friday's close of 1,590.37.

The benchmark index opened 0.50 of-a-point weaker at 1,589.87 and moved between 1,582.78 and 1,593.89 throughout the morning session. 

On the broader market, decliners trounced advancers 819 to 273 while 419 counters were unchanged, 926 untraded, and 24 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 3.05 billion units worth RM1.72 billion.

However, stockbroking firm Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd believes the local stock market would turn positive with the emergence of bargain-hunting activities.

"We believe the overall sentiment will turn positive with the help of the technology sector on the back of rising demand for data centres, artificial intelligence, and cloud services. 

"Besides, we expect healthy earnings to be recorded in the shipping and logistics sector following the fare hike since the Red Sea incident," it said in a note today. 

Meanwhile, Malacca Securities said the resistance is seen around 1,605-1,610 and the support is spotted at 1,570-1,575. 

Among the heavyweights, Maybank added two sen to RM9.88, IHH Healthcare gained six sen to RM6.24, Public Bank inched up one sen to RM4.01, CIMB slid five sen to RM6.74, and Tenaga Nasional was flat at RM13.72.

As for the active, Ingenieur Gudang perked up one sen to seven sen, Techbase rose 3.5 sen to 24 sen, GDB Holdings garnered 4.5 sen to 37.5 sen, K-One Technology climbed 1.5 sen to 31 sen, and MY E.G. slipped one sen to RM1. 

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index decreased 35.37 points to 12,209.46, the FBMT 100 Index declined 31.15 points to 11,784.83, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index slid 30.30 points to 12,548.87.

The FBM 70 Index tumbled 147.79 points to 17,779.32 and the FBM ACE Index fell 48.90 points to 5,740.15.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index slipped by 45.19 points to 17,371.34, the Energy Index gave up 8.06 points to 954.94, and the Plantation Index dipped by 4.62 points to 7,023.76.

However, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.10 of-a-point to 197.89.