KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 2 — 
Malaysia ended the morning session of the first day of trading of 2014 lower today on mild profit-taking led by plantation, finance and consumer stocks, dealers said.
At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM LCI) fell 11.52 points to 1,855.44, after opening 1.23 points lower at 1,865.73. The benchmark index hovered between 1,855.32 and 1,868.29.
Kuala Lumpur-Kepong lost 66 sen to RM24.24, Public Bank fell 30 sen to RM19.10 and PPB dropped 18 sen to RM15.96.
At lunch break, losers led gainers by 336 to 294, with 273 counters unchanged, 645 untraded and 16 others suspended.
Turnover was mild, with 756.33 million shares traded valued at RM648.11 million.
On the scoreboard, the Finance Index fell 37.60 points to 16,918, Industrial Index dropped 13.65 points to 3,174.82 and the Plantation Index eased 67.26 points to 8,878.48.
The FBM Emas Index fell 65.58 points to 12,788.05 and the FBMT100 Index dipped 70.439 points to 12,518.94. The FBM Ace dropped 17.23 points to 5,658.56 and the FBM 70 fell 50.439 points to 14,131.69.
Among actives, Compugates and 1 Utopia were flat at 5.5 sen and 8.5 sen respectively, while Globaltec fell 1 sen to 6.5 sen.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank rose 2 sen to RM9.96, Tenaga lost 14 sen to RM11.24 and Axiata fell 4 sen to RM6.86. — Bernama
