KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 18 — 
Malaysia remained lower at mid-morning on profit-taking despite robust interest in small caps and lower liners, dealers said. At 11.02 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 1.8 points to 1,825.68, after opening 0.28 point higher at 1,827.76. A dealer said the robust trading momentum on small caps and penny stocks yesterday should sustain rotational buying interest on stocks, with news flow on contracts or mergers and acquisitions, while blue chips will stay mostly in consolidation.
On the scoreboard, the Finance Index fell 14.469 points to 16,560.31, the Industrial Index improved 1.62 points to 3,108.3, and the Plantation Index edged up 0.091 point to 8,610.65. The FBM Emas Index slipped 0.99 point to 12,638.43, the FBMT100 Index lost 6.39 points to 12,306.04 and the FBM Ace dropped 2.84 points to 6,419.14, but the FBM 70 improved 15.199 points to 13,846.06.
Negative market breadth had losers outnumbering gainers 338 to 287, while 298 counters were unchanged, 693 untraded and 26 others suspended. Turnover totalled 1.23 billion shares worth RM710.07 million.
Among actives, Sumatec added 0.5 a sen to 33 sen, Scomi advanced 5 sen to 50 sen, Zelan gained 2 sen to 24.5 sen, and Iris earned 1.5 sen to 54.5 sen. PDZ slipped 1 sen to 12.5 sen.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank, Axiata and Sime Darby were flat at RM9.75, RM6.55 and RM8.99 respectively. CIMB gained 1 sen to RM7.11 while TNB lost 4 sen to RM12.14. — Bernama
