KUALA LUMPUR, July 24 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened lower this morning con profit taking activities ahead of the long Hari Raya Aidilfitri weeakend, a dealer said.

At 9.41am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 2.73 points weaker at 1,869.1 points, after opening 1.83 points higher at 1,873.66.

Hong Leong Investment Bank said ahead of the long Hari Raya holidays next week and lack of local catalyst, the KLCI was expected to trend sideways to build its base before trending higher again from an oversold position amid optimism that current tensions in Gaza and Ukraine will not escalate further to dampen global economic recovery.

“We reiterate our view that last week’s knee-jerk sell-down on MH17 tragedy is abating and bargain hunting activities are likely to emerge near 1,850-1,860 points zones,” it said in a research note today.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index lost 50.95 points to 17,340.85, the Plantation Index decreased 3.43 points to 9,023.57 and the Industrial Index slipped 5.45 points to 3,225.62.

The FBM Emas Index declined 12.05 points to 13,061.8, FBMT100 fell 13.49 points to 12,638.84, FBM Ace dipped 3.09 points to 7,051.66 but the FBM 70 expanded 3.78 points to 14,374.02.

Gainers outpaced losers 265 to 229 with 262 counters unchanged, 879 untraded and 13 others were suspended.

Turnover stood at 338.32 million shares worth RM198.77 million.

Among actives, Malaysia Airlines, Wintoni and AirAsia X earned half-a-sen each to 23 sen, 6.5 sen and 83.5 sen, respectively, while Berjaya Corp added one sen to 50.5 sen.

Of heavyweights, Maybank shed one sen to RM9.90, Public Bank erased four sen to RM19.94, Axiata slid three sen to RM6.86 while TNB was flat at RM12.42. — Bernama