Bursa Malaysia opens easier on profit taking

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened easier today on profit-taking after the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) broke past the 1,700-point level yesterday.
At 9.10am, the KLCI stood at 1,708.30, down 1.94 points from Monday's close of 1,710.24.
The index opened 0.27 of-a-point lower at 1,709.97 at 9am.
However, market breadth was positive as gainers led losers by 175 to 102, while 252 counters were unchanged, 1,166 untraded and 15 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 185.74 million shares worth RM79.54 million.
In a note today, Hong Leong Investment Bank said, investors might look for selling-into-strength opportunities if the FBM KLCI were to trend towards the 1,720-1,730 levels.
"Nevertheless, the FBM Small Cap index will be under traders’ radar after rallying above the 16,000 level," it said.
Of the heavyweights, Tenaga fell four sen to RM13.62, Public Bank, IHH Healthcare and Maxi lost two sen each to RM20.20, RM6.23 and RM6.39, respectively, while Maybank remained flat at RM8.35.
Among the top losers, Petronas Dagangan contracted 58 sen to RM23.70, CSC Steel fell 13 sen to RM1.98, Mycron Steel erased six sen to 91 sen and Hap Seng eased five sen to RM9.16.
Of the actives, Hubline slid 1.5 sen to 13.5 sen while Dagang Nexchange and Jag added half-a-sen each to 29.5 sen and 15.5 sen, respectively.
The FBM Emas Index decreased 8.62 points to 12,023.66, FBMT 100 Index fell 10.77 points to 11,699.95 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index slipped 14.63 points to 12,538.73.
The FBM 70 rose 4.1 points to 13,856.38 and the FBM Ace was 9.38 points higher at 5,317.98.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index advanced 8.5 points to 15,099.89 and the Plantation Index gained 6.71 points to 8,245.24.
The Industrial Index contracted 1.12 points to 3,259.81.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM169.64 per gramme, down 58 sen from RM170.22 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama