KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 31 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia were mixed in the early session of 2013’s last trading day and amid a quiet market backdrop, dealers said.

At 9.30am, the benchmark FBM KLCI stood at 1,868.31, down 4.21 points.

However, market breath was positive as advancers led decliners 171 to 141, with 187 counters unchanged, 1,067 untraded and 33 suspended.   

Turnover stood at 266.61 million shares worth RM85.33 million.

“Investors will be looking for a happy ending on the Malaysian bourse today,” HwangDBS Vickers Research said.

It added in a note today that the benchmark index would also be eager to hang on to the year-to-date gains of 10.9 per cent.

As 2013 draws to a close, the FBM KLCI is already standing at an all-time high of 1,872.52 as of yesterday.

Nevertheless, with many people still away on holiday, trading activity on the local bourse may be slow, HwangDBS Vickers Research said.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index lost 43.83 points to 16,922.75, the Industrial Index fell 3.59 points to 3,198.85 and the Plantation Index slipped 13.56 points to 8,937.54.

The FBM Emas Index also declined 24.28 points to 12,859.64 and the FBMT100 Index dipped 27.38 points to 12,594.2.

But the FBM Ace bucked the trend to rise 2.09 points to 5,662.09, while the FBM 70, unable to keep pace, slid 23.1 points to 14,174.19.

Among actives, The Media Shoppe was flat at seven sen, Tiger Synergy rose half a sen to 14 sen and Brem earned 10 sen to RM2.06.

For the heavyweights, Maybank fell four sen to RM10.00, Tenaga was flat at RM11.50 and Axiata declined three sen to RM6.87. — Bernama