KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 28 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia were lower, in the early trade, weighed down by profit taking, dealers said.

At 9.30am, the key index stood at 1,869.42, down 2.96 points, after opening easier at 1,869.27.

A dealer said following yesterday’s strong rebound, blue chips should trade sideways while penny stocks highlight retail participation on rotational basis.

“Immediate resistance for the index stays at 1,875, the 50-day moving average level, followed by the 1,900 psychological level while immediate support is at the recent low of 1,859,” he said.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index declined 36.111 points to 17,419.78, the Plantation Index contracted 24.391 points to 8,545.56 while the Industrial Index gained four points to 3,261.76.

The FBM Emas Index eased 20.67 points to 13,033.15, FBMT100 Index decreased 19.069 points to 12,607.82, the FBM 70 dropped 18.25 points to 14,211.08 but the FBM Ace edged up 10.62 points to 6,997.57.

Losers led gainers 241 to 183 while 239 counters were unchanged, 974 untraded and 30 others were suspended.

Turnover stood at 410.18 million shares worth RM165.89 million.

Heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM10.06 while Public Bank added two sen to RM19.36.

TNB shed eight sen to RM12.40, CIMB lost four sen to RM7.21 and Axiata dropped one sen to RM6.93.

Among actives, Asia Bioenergy and RGB were flat at 12 sen and 14.5 sen respectively, MAS and Digistar added half-a-sen each to 25.5 sen and 30.5 sen, respectively, and Mclean earned 1.5 sen to 25 sen. — Bernama