KUALA LUMPUR, April 1 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session in negative territory today, weighed down by selling pressure in selected heavyweight counters, dealers said.

At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 2.32 points to 1,848.41, after hovering between 1,846.5 and 1,852.29.

Petronas Chemicals emerged as the top loser among blue-chip counters, accounting for 1.73 points and declining 12 sen or 1.74 per cent to RM6.79. IOI Corp followed suit in accounting for a decline of 0.81 of a point, or 7 sen to RM4.73.

The loser-to-gainer ratio was 367 to 299, while 323 counters were unchanged, 619 untraded and 13 others suspended.

A total of 972.55 million shares worth RM839.86 million were traded.

On the scoreboard, the Industrial Index lost 9.85 points to 3,182.27, the Finance Index 26.56 points to 16,604.27, and the Plantation Index 60.54 points to 8,899.68.

The FBM Emas Index lost 37.45 points for 12,760.19, the FBMT100 Index 42.85 points to 12,415.12, and the FBM 70 56.39 points to 13,934.52, but the FBM Ace rose 23.17 points to 6,684.47.

Among actives, Masterskill Education gained 4.5 sen to 47.5 sen, Fitters Diversified rose 5 sen to RM1.02, with Ingenuity Consolidated flat at 10 sen, but Xidelang eased 1.5 sen to 27 sen.

As for the heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB declined 1 sen each to RM9.67 and RM7.14 respectively, with Tenaga flat at RM11.96. Axiata improved 2 sen to RM6.69. — Bernama