KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 14 — Bursa Malaysia was in choppy trading at mid-morning today, tracking the mixed regional bourses, dealers said.

At 11.05am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell one point to 1,583.73 from yesterday's close of 1,584.73.

The index opened 0.26 point better at 1,584.99, and moved between 1,583.39 and 1,587.47 throughout the mid-morning.

Market breadth on Bursa was negative with losers leading gainers 313 to 302, while 379 counters remained unchanged, 965 untraded and 18 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 1.05 billion shares worth RM531.05 million.

Rakuten Trade in a research note said the FBM KLCI continued to lag, staying below the 1,600 level.

"Nonetheless, the small and mid-cap technology stocks have been the bright spot and we expect this to continue and investors should look at tech-related stocks,” it said.

Of heavyweights, Maybank rose one sen to RM8.66, Public Bank gained six sen to RM19.28, Tenaga eased six sen to RM12.90, while Petronas Chemicals and CIMB declined two sen each to RM7.08 and RM5.18 respectively.

Top loser was Dutch Lady which fell 50 sen to RM46.80, while KL Kepong deducted 18 sen to RM24.56, United Plantation eased 14 sen to RM26.14 and Sarawak Oil Palms lost 13 sen to RM3.90.

Among actives, Vortex weakened one sen to 16 sen, MYEG rose four sen to RM1.16 and Yong Tai increased half-a-sen to 15.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index went up 0.47 point to 11,310.89 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 1.18 points higher to 11,944.94.

The FBMT 100 Index strengthened 0.21 point to 11,099.48 the FBM 70 gained 29.85 points to 14,270.26 while the FBM Ace increased 31.34 points to 5,534.22.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 0.11 point to 152.65, the Financial Services Index eased 0.84 point to 15,451.66 and the Plantation Index went down 31.20 points to 7,645.54. — Bernama