KUALA LUMPUR, July 3 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened easier this morning on mild profit taking, bucking the regional trend where most market were lifted by the overnight jump in Wall Street, dealers said.

Market sentiment today is expected to be more cautious with slight optimism as the US government will release the non-farm payroll data and trade balance figure which is due out later today.

At 9.07am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 1.64 points easier at 1,885.2 after opening at 1,885.46.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index eased 16.07 points to 17,224.039 but the Plantation Index advanced 6.86 points to 9,239.85 and the Industrial Index added 10.45 points to 3,262.22.

The FBM Emas Index edged down 10.92 points to 13,078.41, the FBMT100 Indexd dropped 13.4 points to 12,700.06, the FBM Ace eased 0.62 of a point to 6,734.46 while the FBM 70 decreased 24.5 points to 14,260.29.

Market breadth was positive as gainers outpaced losers 121 to 85 and 1,430 counters were unchanged.

Turnover stood at 128.2 million shares worth RM54.6 million.

Among actives, MAS edged up three sen to 24 sen, Keladi inched up four sen to 36.5 sen and Minetech shed half-a-sen to 14.5 sen.

Heavyweights, Maybank flat at RM9.84, Public Bank added six sen to RM19.82 and TNB was unchanged at RM12.38. — Bernama