KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 31 ― Bursa Malaysia ended the morning trading session mixed as mild bargain-hunting interspersed with profit-taking activities.

At 12.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 0.67 points to 1,513.42 from yesterday's close of 1,512.75.

The barometer index opened 0.15 of-a-point easier at 1,512.60, and subsequently moved between 1,510.84 and 1,514.65 throughout the session.

The market breadth was negative with decliners outpacing gainers 570 to 300, while 426 counters were unchanged, 966 untraded and 52 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 1.94 billion units worth RM1.02 billion.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the FBM KLCI ended lower yesterday after a solid opening due to profit-taking activities and the impact of the sharp drop in Hong Kong equities.

“Nonetheless, we reckon this is only an intermittent correction and will not distract inflows of foreign funds, thus recent dips offer excellent opportunities to bargain hunt.

“For today, we believe the index will hover within the 1,510-1,520 range, and interests in the Financials and Plantation counters to persist,” he told Bernama.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank slid one sen to RM9.23, Petronas Chemicals lost five sen to RM6.78, Public Bank and CIMB Group were flat at RM4.40 and RM6.22, respectively, while Tenaga Nasional added 12 sen to RM10.60.

As for the actives, TWL Holdings, Sapura Energy and Widad Group were flat at four sen, five sen and 14.5 sen, respectively.

Meanwhile, Reneuco decreased 5.5 sen to 10 sen and HE Group added half-a-sen to 33.0 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 12.72 points lower at 11,244.12, the FBMT 100 Index dropped 12.01 points to 10,904.85, the FBM 70 Index decreased 86.17 points to 15,178.37, the FBM Emas Shariah Index slipped 7.83 points to 11,273.02 and the FBM ACE Index went down 7.36 points to 4,777.94.

Sector-wise, the Property Index shed 5.56 points to 920.51, the Financial Services Index slid 26.86 points to 16,923.81 and the Industrial Products and Services Index eased by 0.77 points to 173.25.

Meanwhile, the Plantation Index increased 12.10 points to 7,220.47 and the Energy Index firmed 6.36 points to 885.54. ― Bernama