KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 6 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session lower today in tandem with Asian stocks, as investors stayed cautious ahead of release of the US labour report, dealers said.

At lunch break, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) lost 3.2 points to 1,804.27, after hovering between 1,801.71 and 1,813.61 during the session.

A dealer said the labour report, due Friday, was a keenly watched indicator related to the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy.

“Other important data to be released this week, included the US third quarter gross domestic product data, as well as the outcome of the Bank of England and European Central Bank's (ECB) policy meetings,“ he added.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index fell 15.94 points to 16,681.31, while the Industrial Index lost 7.27 points to 3,117.22, and the Plantation Index shed 25.54 point to 8,608.58.

The FBM Emas Index contracted 21.59 points for 12,549.71, the FBMT100 Index dipped 20.42 points to 12,274.39, and the FBM 70 was 18.06 points lower at 14,270.10.

The FBM Ace Index rose 19.48 points to 5,821.73.

Losers outpaced gainers by 405 to 282, with 306 counters unchanged, 597 untraded and 20 others suspended.

Volume stood at 1.38 billion shares worth RM1.11 billion.

Among actives, debutants Barakah Offshore and Karex gained 48.5 sen and 63 sen each for RM1.02 and RM2.48, respectively.

Meanwhile, Hubline and Talam Transform lost half-a-sen each to five sen and seven sen respectively, while Takaso Resources eased 1.5 sen to 24 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank, Sime Darby and Petronas Chemicals lost one sen each for RM9.86, RM9.50 and RM7.07 respectively, and Axiata dipped two sen at RM6.86, with CIMB unchanged at RM7.54. — Bernama