KUALA LUMPUR, May 7 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened lower on mild profit-taking, mostly seen in selected consumers’ stocks, dealers said.

At 9:15am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,853.61 points, down 6.82 points, after opening 0.94 of a point higher at 1,861.73 points. 

Market breadth was negative, with losers leading gainers 140 to 119, while 174 counters were unchanged, 1,183 untraded and 17 others were suspended.

Turnover stood at 134.09 million shares worth RM76.31 million.

PPB Group and UMW Holdings were among the top three losers in the morning session, easing 16 sen and 12 sen each to RM16.04 and RM10.56, respectively.

RHB Retail Research said the selling pressure may continue today and a firm downside bias should keep the index below 1,870 points, the highs of April 22 and 23.

“It’s better that it stays below 1,855 points, near yesterday’s high, as that will increase the chances of getting below 1,850 points, which is needed to confirm the breakdown of the level on Monday.

“A successful violation of the latter may even stimulate further selling and supports are seen at 1,845 points, near April 14’s low,” the research house said in a note.

The research firm said failure to stay below 1,855 points could see the buyers getting bolder, which may gain further traction if the 1,860 points level, near the May 2 low, was violated.

On the scoreboard, the Plantation Index lost 20.24 points to 9,040.28 points, the Finance Index was 37.73 points lower at 16,912 points and the Industrial Index slipped 12.02 points to 3,162.84 points.

The FBM Emas Index eased 32.59 points to 12,840.14, the FBMT100 Index declined 33.99 points to 12,490.84, but the FBM 70 gained 8.45 points to 14,040.39 points and the FBM Ace garnered 20.99 points to 6,515.88 points.

Heavyweights, Maybank eased 1.0 sen to RM9.80, TNB shed 2.0 sen to RM11.90, CIMB dipped 5.0 sen to RM7.30 while Public Bank was flat at RM19.84.

Among actives, Mitrajaya Holdings rose two sen to 79.5 sen, Nexgram Holdings added one sen to 12.5 sen, Iris Corp earned half-a-sen to 43.5 sen but Astral Supreme fell one sen to 13 sen. — Bernama