Bursa Malaysia opens lower on profit-taking

KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened lower in early trading today due to continuous profit-taking after recent gains, dealers said.
At 9.09am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,742.00, down 9.64 points, from Monday's close of 1,751.64. The key index opened 7.19 points easier at 1,743.73.
However, market breadth was still positive, with 137 gainers against 105 losers, 218 counters unchanged, 1,408 untraded and 23 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 193.92 million shares worth RM69.67 million.
Malaysian Association of Technical Analysts Professional Member Amir Hassan said the market is expected to calm down this week ahead the Christmas holiday.
For heavyweights, Maybank lost three sen to RM9.47, Tenaga rose six sen to RM15.00, Public Bank eased six sen to RM20.64 and Petronas Chemicals added two sen to RM7.47.
Among actives, Diversified Gateway Solutions increased one sen to 9.5 sen, while PUC and Tiger were flat at 32 sen and 4.5 sen, respectively.
The FBM Emas Index declined 43.35 points to 12,527.47 and the FBMT100 lost 44.99 points to 12,194.37 but the FBM70 rose 18.97 points to 15,432.26.
The FBM Emas Syariah Index fell 55.82 points to 12,831.97 but the FBM Ace Index gained 15.62 points to 6,416.24.
On the scoreboard, the Finance Index gave up 27.64 points to 16,519.28, the Industrial Index slipped 0.63 of-a-point to 3,160.70 and the Plantation Index fell 14.31 points to 7,807.17.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM160.03 per gramme, up 29 sen from RM159.74 at 5.00pm yesterday. — Bernama