KUALA LUMPUR, May 20 — Bursa Malaysia turned negative at mid-morning today due to the emergence of profit-taking activities in the key index-linked counters.

At 11.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KCLI (FBM KLCI) eased 0.31 points to 1,423.66 from 1,423.97 at Tuesday’s close.

The key index opened 5.29 points firmer at 1,429.26.

Market breadth also turned negative with losers overtaking gainers 383 to 366, while 347 counters were unchanged, 795 untraded and 19 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 2.72 billion worth RM1.32 billion.

Meanwhile, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd believed that moving forward, the overdue pullback or consolidation may start to materialise, particularly among the low liners.

“Investors are also turning wary on the recent batch of earnings performance which could be used as an excuse to trim their holdings,” it said in a note today.

Among the 30 KLCI-linked counters, Digi fell eight sen to RM4.39, Public Bank fell 10 sen to RM15.40, IHH and Petronas Chemicals trimmed half-a-sen each to RM15.40 and RM5.79 respectively, while Axiata lost four sen to RM3.87.

The most active counters were led by Rimbunan Sawit and Eduspec which increased half-a-sen each to 31.5 sen and three sen respectively, Bumi Armada slipped 1.5 sen to 23 sen, KNM edged down half-a-sen to 21.5 sen while TDM was unchanged at 27 sen.

Top gainer Time Dotcom rose 70 sen to RM11.40 while top loser Nestle erased RM1.20 to RM138.80.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index gained 4.04 points to 10,075.5, the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 15.93 points higher at 11,424.61 but the FBMT 100 Index slid 0.41 of-a-point to 9,916.71.

The FBM ACE increased 28.62 points to 5,392.02 and the FBM 70 rose 6.62 points to 12,493.23.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index shrank 13.92 points to 12,401.0, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.32 of-a-point to 123.49 and the Plantation Index strengthened 68.19 points to 6,602.19. — Bernama