KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 20 ― Bursa Malaysia moved in a seesaw pattern in early trade today, with the barometer index alternating between gains and losses in a narrow band.

At 9.05am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 0.42 of-a-point to 1,538.19 compared to yesterday's close of 1,538.61 with the majority of heavyweights exhibiting flat movement.

The benchmark index opened 0.11 of-a-point higher at 1,538.72 .

Market breadth on the local stock market showed advances matching declines 135 to 133, while 247 counters were unchanged, 1,783 untraded and nine others suspended.

Turnover stood at 200.72 million units worth RM58.08 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng expects a correction anytime soon following the recent rally but only for a short period.

"Hence, we expect the index to hover within the 1,535-1,545 range today, with interest possibly on the construction and utilities stocks,” he said.

In overseas markets, Wall Street was closed for Washington's birthday yesterday and a look at the futures showed that all three major indices remained rather flat, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index down 184 points, halting its Dragon Year rally as the Chinese authority kept interest rates unchanged.

On top of that, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd opined that the market is closely monitoring the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting minutes, unemployment claims and the US Purchasing Managers' Index data to be released on Thursday.

"Nevertheless, we expect a continuation of buying interest on the broader market ahead of the domestic earnings season,” it said, adding that bullishness in the oil and crude palm oil markets is also set to benefit related counters.

Among the heavyweights, Sime Darby remained on the uptrend, gaining five sen to RM2.56 and YTL Power was two sen higher at RM3.82.

Maybank was flat at RM9.46, while Public Bank and CIMB were down by two sen to RM4.41 and RM6.38 respectively.

As for the actives, Hong Seng added half-a-sen to 2.5 sen, while Minetech, Bina Puri, Velesto and Destini lost half-a-sen each to 16.5 sen, 7.5 sen, 26 sen and 4.5 sen respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index gained 3.37 points to 11,424.02, the FBMT 100 Index improved 3.30 points to 11,071.67 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 16.40 points to 11,494.38.

The FBM 70 Index was 30.63 points better at 15,362.68 while the FBM ACE Index slid 0.50 of-a-point to 4,864.80.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index dipped 26.61 points to 17,225.05, the Plantation Index added 15.28 points to 7,314.02, while the Energy Index was 5.16 points higher at 901.22 and the Industrial Products and Services Index bagged 0.02 of-a-point to 175.63. ― Bernama