KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session lower after trading in cautious mode today, weighed down by profit-taking in selected heavyweights, dealers said.
At lunch break, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 4.14 points to 1,496.19 from last Friday's closing of 1,500.33.
The market bellwether opened 0.97 of-a-point better at 1,501.30, and moved between 1,494.73 and 1,501.86 throughout the session.
However, market breadth remained positive with gainers outpacing losers 433 to 290, while 366 counters were unchanged, 1,107 untraded, and nine others suspended.
Turnover amounted to 1.47 billion units worth RM823.66 million.
A dealer said the local bourse opened marginally higher after the long Chinese New Year holiday weekend, trading cautiously before descending into the negative territory at mid-morning on profit-taking.
Bursa Malaysia bucked the regional bourses' uptrend as Asian equities extended their gains despite the United States markets' lacklustre performance on Tuesday, as the earnings reporting season continued to reveal uncertainties amidst recession fears, she said.
Regionally, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 1.82 per cent to 22,044.65, Japan's Nikkei 225 climbed 0.44 per cent to 27,418.93, China's SSE Composite Index advanced 0.76 per cent to 3,264.81, South Korea's Kospi increased 1.38 per cent to 2,428.20 and Singapore's Straits Times Index added 1.78 per cent to 3,352.40.
Back home, Bursa heavyweights Tenaga Nasional added one sen to RM9.46, Public Bank and Petronas Chemical eased one sen each to RM4.25 and RM8.49, respectively, while Maybank and CIMB were flat at RM8.80 and RM5.77, respectively.
As for the actives, Sapura Energy and Velesto edged up half-a-sen each to 5.5 sen and 20.5 sen respectively, Cypark rose 12.5 sen to 81.5 sen, Dagang Nexchange added two sen to 62.5 sen and Coraza gained 1.5 sen to 93 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index slid 0.37 of-a-point to 10,842.11, the FBMT 100 Index eased 8.35 points to 10,525.43 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 16.38 points to 11,077.24.
The FBM 70 Index rose 79 points to 13,582.65 and the FBM ACE Index advanced 26.02 points to 5,582.10.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index slipped 11.55 points to 16,523.58 and the Plantation Index dropped 43.11 points to 6,838.31, while the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 1.06 points to 189.42 and the Energy Index bagged 10.46 points to 856.27.
- Bernama