KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 18 — Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session lower today on continued profit-taking in selected heavyweights, industrial product and consumer counters, despite firmer Asian markets, dealers said.

At 12.30pm, the key FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 4.68 points weaker at 1,823.95 against yesterday's close of 1,828.63. It opened 2.61 points higher at 1,831.24.

Market breadth was negative with losers overwhelming gainers 675 to 229, with 379 counters unchanged, 549 untraded and 32 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 2.97 billion shares worth RM1.41 billion.

A dealer said most Asian markets were traded higher today as investors’ focus shifted to a series of Chinese data scheduled to be released today, including the gross domestic product.

He said the latest sign of confidence in global growth also came from Apple Inc., whose shares rose after saying it would bring hundreds of billions of dollars back to the US from overseas to invest in jobs and facilities.

Among heavyweights, Maybank slipped three sen to RM9.85, TNB declined two sen to RM15.80, Public Bank rose two sen to RM20.90 while Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM8.17.

Of the actives, Sumatec was flat at 10 sen, UMW O&G went down 2.5 sen to 36 sen, HETX eased half-a-sen to 4.5 sen while Sapura Energy fell 3.5 sen to 77.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index was 44.11 points lower at 13,147.62, FBMT 100 Index decreased 37.84 points to 12,810.53, FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 43.78 points to 13,574.73, FBM 70 fell 65.01 points to 16,355.28 and the FBM Ace lost 116.54 points to 6,689.64.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index slid 49.12 points to 17,197.08, Industrial Index erased 35.08 points to 3,303.26 and the Plantation Index shed 10.31 points to 8,064.92. — Bernama