KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 18 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened lower this morning on profit-taking amid the lack of an external catalyst, a dealer said. As at 9.26 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,826.58, down 0.9 of a point, after opening 0.28 of a point higher at 1,827.76.
HwangDBS Vickers Research in a research note today said the closure of Wall Street for the President’s Day public holiday could also hold up sentiment in Malaysian equities today. Nevertheless, it said the FBM KLCI would probably strive to pull further away from the resistance-turned-support level of 1,825.
On the scoreboard, the Finance Index eased 33.959 points to 16,540.82 while the Industrial Index rose 10.94 points to 3,117.62 and the Plantation Index improved 1.311 points to 8,611.87.
The FBM Emas Index was down 0.17 of a point to 12,639.25, the FBMT100 Index slipped 3.56 points to 12,308.87, the FBM Ace lost 5.43 points to 6,416.55 while the FBM 70 rose 5.72 points to 13,836.58.
Market breadth was positive, with gainers overcoming losers 203 to 151, while 254 counters were unchanged, 1,008 untraded and 26 others suspended. Turnover stood at 444.21 million shares worth RM213.63 million.
Among actives, Minetech lost 1 sen to 30.5 sen and PDZ dipped 0.5 sen to 13 sen. Scomi and Zelan earned 2 sen to 47 sen and 24.5 sen respectively, while Sumatec was unchanged at 32.5 sen.
As for the heavyweights, Maybank, TNB and Axiata were flat at RM9.75, RM12.18 and RM6.55 respectively, while CIMB and Sime Darby improved 1 sen each to RM7.11 and RM9. — Bernama
