KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 25 — Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session marginally lower, while trading in cautious mode ahead of the Budget 2018 to be tabled on Friday, and with the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) weighed down by losses in selected heavyweight stocks, dealers said.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI fell 0.86 of a point to 1,737.68, after moving between 1,733.67 and 1,737.68 throughout the morning session.

It opened  0.89 of-a-point better at 1,737.03  from Tuesday's close of 1,736.14.

Market breadth was negative as losers outpaced gainers 405 to 271 with 377 counters unchanged, 799 untraded and 18 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.35 billion shares worth RM769.46 million.

A dealer said Asian shares edged higher in taking cue from the firmer overnight Wall Street  performance, while remaining cautious in eyeing clues from the upcoming corporate earnings reports and developments over the next Federal Reserve chair.

Meanwhile, Hong Leong Investment Bank in a note said on the back of an overnight rally on Wall Street, the FBM KLCI could stage a mild technical rebound today, but mid-to-large cap stocks may still consolidate sideways ahead of the Budget 2018 details.

 Rotational plays in ACE companies and penny stocks would remain darlings on the radar of  traders, while, trading focus could linger around oil and gas stocks amid the overnight 1.7 per cent rally in Brent crude, it added.

Regionally, Japan's Nikkei 225 improved 0.05 per cent to 21,816.97, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.73 per cent at 28,360.59, South Korea's Kospi added 0.15 per cent to 2,494.26, the Singapore Straits Times index gained 0.77 per cent to 3,335.44 and the Shanghai Stock Exchange bagged 0.12 per cent to 3,392.29.

Among heavyweights, Maybank fell seven sen to RM9.18, Sime Darby and Petronas Chemicals slid two sen each to RM9.09 and RM7.46 respectively, TNB bagged four sen to RM14.34 and Public Bank gained two sen to RM20.46.

Of the actives, D.B.E Gurney edged up half-a-sen each to 3.5 sen, MNC Wireless added one sen to 10 sen, UMW Oil & Gas warrant gained 11 sen to 11.5 sen, while Trive Property and NetX Holdings eased half-a-sen each to 17.5 sen and and five sen.

The FBM Emas Index improved 0.94 of a point to 12,466.94,  the FBMT100 Index was 1.52 points better at 12,110.06, the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 12.05 points to 12,842.46 and the FBM 70 gained 29.89 points to 15,190.26.

 The FBM Ace fell 75.54 points to 6,809.63.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index was 3.66 points lower at 7,923.24, the Industrial Index fell 4.06 points to 3,196.12 and the Finance Index slipped 42.24 points to 16,215.47. — Bernama