KUALA LUMPUR, June 24 — Bursa Malaysia opened in the red today after profit-taking snapped the previous week's rally.

At 9.05am, the key FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 4.47 points to 1,677.76 from 1,682.23 at 5pm last Friday.

The index opened 2.95 points lower at 1,679.28.

Gainers led losers 104 to 96, with 154 counters unchanged, 1,546 untraded and 45 suspended.

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Turnover stood at 66.37 million worth RM36.96 million.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said the FBM KLCI is becoming increasingly overbought following recent gains, which was largely discerning and were on a last-minute lift on selective stocks.

“Hence, we view the recent gains as already overdone and a pullback is already due,” it said in a note today.

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Hence, it expects the key index is ripe for a pullback that could see it retracing to the 1,675 and 1,670 levels. 

In addition, the research house expects the lacklustre trend among FBM Small Cap, FBM Fledgling and FBM ACE market shares will remain a feature for longer points from its low in May.

Overall, it sees the resistances are at 1,690 and 1,700 points level, respectively.

Another analyst said investors were also looking ahead at President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping upcoming meeting at this week’s G20 summit in Japan.

In addition, investors are also cautious amid simmering tensions between Washington and Teheran after Iran's Revolutionary Guard shot down an unmanned US surveillance drone on Thursday.

However, he said local sentiment remained intact supported by Prime Minister’s Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad remark that Malaysia can achieve GDP growth of above 5.0 per cent this year despite the current projection of between 4.8 per cent to 4.9 per cent.

Among heavyweights, Maybank dropped one sen to RM8.93, Public Bank was 16 sen lower at RM22.90, Tenaga went down 12 sen to RM13.78 and Petronas Chemicals declined four sen to RM8.52.

Of the actively-traded stocks, Pegasus Heights lost half a sen to one sen while both SMTrack and Greatech Technology added one sen to 20.5 sen and RM1.03, respectively.

The FBM Emas Index fell 33.83 points to 11,815.68, the FBMT 100 Index decreased 36.09 points to 11,667.92 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index slipped 33.09 points to 12,177.33.

The FBM 70 edged down 65.67 points to 14,633.43 while the FBM Ace gained 5.73 points to 4,403.07.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index shed 39.77 points to 16,706.79, and the Industrial Products & Services Index inched down 0.46 of-a-point to 161.66 and the Plantation Index eased 1.18 points to 7,018.36. — Bernama