KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 14 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia remained low on lack of fresh lead after losing 8.49 points to 1,817.15 at the closing bell yesterday, dealers said.

As at 9:10am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,815.92, down 1.23 points after opening 0.64 of a point lower at 1,816.51.

Meanwhile, the overnight Wall Street was reported to edge higher yesterday despite an earlier retreat in Asia, as confidence grew that the past weeks’turmoil in markets has run its course.

An analyst said previous losses in the US market have made stocks more attractive to buy in the months ahead.

HwangDBS Vickers Research said the buoyant Wall Street performance is poised to lift sentiment among investors in Asia.

“On the back of better-than-expected corporate earnings, major US equity barometers rose between 0.4 per cent and 0.9 per cent last night. Yet, the positive external vibes may be felt less on our Malaysian stock exchange today.

“Essentially, profit–taking could put downward pressures on our local bourse following its recent run-up with the benchmark FBM KLCI to dip a bit more after yesterday’s loss of 8.5 points,” the research house said in a note.

HwangDBS said the sentiment will also be the same for the futures market as the February 2014 futures contract was currently trading at 1,805.5, a 11.7 points discount to the FBM KLCI spot rate.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index eased 1.86 points to 16,562.27, the Industrial Index fell 6.6 points to 3,099.92, and the Plantation Index lost 21.88 points to 8,507.67.

The FBM Emas Index was 1.7 points weaker at 12,557.388, the FBMT100 Index slipped 4.91 points to 12,246.87, the FBM 70 rose 7.63 points to 13,805.37 and the FBM Ace added 6.07 points to 6,234.42.

However, market breadth was positive, with gainers overcoming losers by 140 to 66, while 153 counters were unchanged, 1,249 untraded and 19 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 158.48 million shares worth RM52.3 million.

Among actives, Hubline and PDZ Holdings earned half-a-sen each to six sen and 15 sen, respectively, Green Packet added four sen to 47 sen and Kinsteel improved two sen to 18 sen.

As for the heavyweights, Maybank, TNB and CIMB were flat at RM9.76, RM11.86 and RM7.09, respectively, while Axiata dipped two sen to RM6.53. — Bernama