KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 ― The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended the morning trading session mixed as profit-taking activities emerged amidst volatility in the market, a dealer said.

At 12.30pm, the market bellwether rose by 0.43 points to 1,600.04 from 1,599.61 at yesterday's close.

The index, which opened 7.04 points higher at 1,606.65, moved between 1,597.35 and 1,613.71 throughout the session.

Market breadth was negative with losers outnumbering gainers 452 to 364, while 415 counters were unchanged, 997 untraded and 10 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.95 billion units worth RM1.39 billion.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of Equity Research, Thong Pak Leng said the local bourse may experience some intermittent correction after the continuous gains in the past few sessions.

He said as the FBM KLCI continued with its uptrend in early trade and broke the 1,600 mark, the next target is the 1,620 level.

"For today, the index is expected to hover between 1,595 and 1,610,” he said.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank gained seven sen to RM8.69, Public Bank stayed flat at RM4.39, Petronas Chemicals and Axiata each lost seven sen to RM9.31 and RM3.88, respectively, and CIMB Group fell three sen to RM5.62.

As for the actives, SMTrack rose 1.5 sen to 22.5 sen, Dagang NeXchange increased 12 sen to RM1.25, KNM was half-a-sen higher at 19 sen and Ta Win stayed flat at 16 sen.

On the index board, FBM ACE reduced 15.02 points to 6,270.43, FBM 70 improved 8.80 points to 13,704.16, FBM Emas Index was 1.77 points better at 11,413.06, FBMT 100 Index increased 3.93 points to 11,101.68, and FBM Emas Shariah Index gave up 5.80 points to 12,139.84.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index advanced 16 points to 16,469.43, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.06 of-a-point better at 211.87, while the Plantation Index slipped 16.61 points to 7,639.81. ― Bernama