KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 16 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia opened lower this morning on an extended correction, dealers said.

At 9.27 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 4.59 points lower at 1.667.91, after opening 0.48 of-a-point weaker at 1,672.02.

The index closed at 1,672.5 on last Friday.

A dealer said due to last week’s shallow profit-taking retracement, momentum indicators for the FBM KLCI stayed overbought, suggesting a limited immediate upside bias, with keen profit-taking interest restricting further gains.

"Immediate resistance for the index will be at last week’s fresh four-month high of 1,682, with stronger resistance seen near 1,700. Key chart supports will be at the 200-day moving average at 1,660, next at 1,643,” he added.

The FBM Emas Index was 27.43 points lower at 11,683.88, the FBMT100 Index edged down 27.86 points to 11,387.83 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 9.80 points to 12,227.01.

The FBM 70 declined 19.21 points to 13,344.47 but the FBM Ace went up 17.78 points to 5,104.95.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index lost 7.92 points to 7,929.14, the Finance Index shed 83.5 points to 14,662.49, and the Industrial Index eased 0.17 points to 3,169.91.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank lost nine sen to RM8.23, Public Bank shed 10 sen to RM19.98 and Sime Darby eased two sen to RM8.50.

TNB added two sen to RM13.96, while Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM7.19.

Of the actives, Hibiscus Petroleum lost two sen to 47 sen, and Sumatec slipped half a sen to 7.5 sen.

Luster Industries and Dagang Nexchange bagged half a sen each to 8.5 sen and 28.5 sen respectively, while Green Packet was flat at 27.5 sen.

Losers outpaced gainers 170 to 140 with 250 counters unchanged, 1,1,173 untraded and 18 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 327.08 million shares worth RM90.14 million. — Bernama