KUALA LUMPUR, March 7 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia extended lost to end the morning session lower, weighed down by selling in blue chips, dealers said.

At lunch break, the benchmark FBM KLCI ended at 1,833.42, down 5.27 points, after fluctuating between 1,832.88 and 1,836.48 throughout the morning session.

British American Tobacco tops the losers list, losing 24 sen to RM59.80 while TNB was also on the top four, shedding 14 sen to RM11.98.

However, a dealer was optimist that barring any external shocks, the improving sentiment and trading momentum on oil and gas and plantation stocks should continue to underpin the broader market tone.

“The index need to overcome resistance, currently at 1,839, before meeting next hurdle at 1,860, while the all-time high of 1,882 will be a major hurdle,” he said.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index rose 16.209 points to 16,536.92, the Plantation Index jumped 46.96 points to 8,983.55 but the Industrial Index fell 7.67 points to 3,158.09.

The FBM Emas Index decreased 11.93 points to 12,712.58, the FBMT100 Index was 15.801 points lower at 12,381.77 while the FBM 70 chalked up 59.07 points to 14,023.17, and the FBM Ace expanded 44.83 points to 6,604.69.   

Market breadth was positive, with gainers outnumbering losers 353 to 328, while 301 counters were unchanged, 641 untraded and 15 others suspended.

Turnover totalled 830.9 billion shares worth RM800.49 million Among actives, Iris, EA Holdings and AT Systematization earned half a sen each to 59.5 sen, 19 sen and 8.5 sen respectively, Damansara Realty perked eight sen to 94 sen while Luster Industries was flat at 10.5 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank added two sen to RM9.72 and Sime Darby gained one sen to RM9.24.

CIMB and Petronas Chemicals lost two sen each to RM7.07 and RM6.70 respectively while Axiata erased four sen to RN6.51. — Bernama