KUALA LUMPUR, March 7 ― Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened lower in early trading this morning on profit-taking, dealers said.

The benchmark FBM KLCI stood at 1,835.95, down 2.74 points at 9:10 am, after opening 4.41 points at 1,834.28.

Gainers outpaced losers 175 to 91, while 169 counters were unchanged; 1,188untraded and 15 others were suspended.

Turnover stood at 120.14 million shares worth RM62.36 million.

HwangDBS Vickers Research said that riding on the positive momentum following yesterday’s market upturn, the Malaysian bourse could extend its rally today.

“On the chart, the benchmark FBM KLCI, up 9.6 points or 0.5 per cent yesterday, may rise a bit more to challenge the immediate resistance threshold of 1,840,” it said.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index lost 11.021 points to 16,509.69; the Industrial Index lost 4.06 points to 3,161.7 but the Plantation Index added16.101 points to 8,952.69.   

The FBM Emas Index fell 6.93 points to 12,717.58, the FBMT100 Index slipped 9.391 points to 12,388.18, while the FBM 70 rose 24.58 points to 13,988.68 and the FBM Ace was 10.97 points higher at 6,570.83.

Among actives, EA Holdings added one sen to 19.5 sen, Asian Pac and PDZ gained half-a-sen each to 21.5 sen and 12.5 sen respectively while LusterIndustries and Astral Supreme was unchanged at 10.5 sen and 22.5 sen respectively.

As for heavyweights, Maybank lost one sen to RM9.69, TNB shed 10 sen toRM12.02 and CIMB and Sime Darby declined two sen each to RM7.07 and RM9.21, respectively. Axiata was flat at RM6.55. ― Bernama