KUALA LUMPUR, April 16 — Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session lower today on lack of buying momentum.

At lunch break, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 4.01 points lower at 1,849.87, after opening 0.74 of a point higher at 1,854.62.

It had hovered between 1,848.16 and 1,854.62 through the session.

On the scoreboard, the Industrial Index was a marginal 0.83 of a point higher to 3,201.03 and the Plantation Index 0.62 of a point to 8,954.37, while the Finance Index fell 22.58 points to 16,873.39.

The FBM 70 jumped 41.18 points to 14,160.68 while the FBM Ace slid 1.93 points to 6,768.5, with the FBM Emas Index 9.06 points lower at 12,851.85 and the FBMT100 Index easing 12.8 points to 12,495.22.

Gainers led losers 359 to 338 while 333 counters were unchanged, 597 untraded and 16 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.236 billion shares worth RM937.575 million.

Among actives, Salcon rose 5.5 sen to 84.5 sen and Sona Petroleum added 3.5 sen to 55 sen, while R&A Telecommunications and PDZ Holdings were flat at 4.5 sen and 15.5 sen respectively.

As for the heavyweights, Axiata and Sime Darby rose 1 sen each to RM6.61 and RM9.31 respectively, Maybank was flat at RM9.79 and Public Bank eased 4 sen to RM19.74. — Bernama