KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 19 — Bursa Malaysia opened in the red this morning on profit-taking following last week's gains and weighed on by losses in selected bluechips.
At 9.24 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,715.61, down 1.21 points, after opening 4.74 points weaker at 1,712.08.
However, gainers outpaced decliners 207 to 171, while 229 counters were unchanged, 1,201 untraded and 17 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 372.86 million shares worth RM128.36 million.
Leading the top losers' list were British American Tobacco which fell 50 sen to RM62, United Plantations easing 36 sen to RM25.94 and Hong Leong Bank registering a drop of 14 sen to RM14.10.
Losses were, however, capped by gains in industrial product counters such as Top Glove (+30 sen to RM9), Petronas Gas (+26 sen to RM22.84) and Sam Engineering (+16 sen to RM7.22).
Among actives were MQ Technology, which remained unchanged at 13.5 sen, Nexgram inching up half-a-sen to 8.5 sen and Wintoni rising a sen to 22 sen.
Heavyweights Maybank and Axiata were both flat at RM8.62 and RM6.40 respectively, Public Bank increasing 8.0 sen to RM18.76 and Tenaga improving 4.0 sen to RM12.84.
The FBM Emas Index was 2.35 points lower at 11,803.31, the FBMT100 Index lost 2.41 points to 11,506.64 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index eased 6.77 points to 12,564.82.
The FBM Ace increased 48.08 points to 6,151.48 and FBM 70 rose 18.54 points to 12,734.19.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index rose 22.88 points to 14,733.99, the Industrial Index added 1.64 points to 3,346.71 and the Plantation Index declined 31.22 points to 7,468.84. — Bernama
