MALAYSIAN shares were lower in early session today on heavy profit-taking after last week's run-up, dealers said."The market came under correction as investors took profits following recent sharp gains," a dealer said, adding that the benchmark index gained 14 per cent over the past five weeks.
At 9.46am, the benchmark Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) fell 6.11 points to 959.06 after opening 1.73 points higher at 966.90.The Finance Index declined 100.15 points to 7,323.03, the Industrial Index lost 14.68 points to 2,229.71 and the Plantation Index went down 6.10 points to 4,908.22.
The FBMEmas fell 43.08 points to 6,319.49, the FBM30 dropped 35.04 points to 6,139.56 and the FBM2BRD was 9.99 points lower at 4,083.95. The FBM-MDQ declined 47.40 points to 4,083.95. Losers outnumbered gainers by 232 to 72 while 92 counters were unchanged, 846 untraded and 36 others suspended.
Volume stood at 140.837 million shares worth RM124.967 million. Among the actives, Sime Darby and MISC were both unchanged at RM6.40 and RM4.26, respectively. Maybank was down 12 sen to RM4.28. Tenaga Nasional was flat at RM7.10.
The company had said it would retain the present electricity tariff as long as the price of oil, gas and coal remain unchangedThe top loser was British American Tobbaco which shed 50 sen to RM45.50 while top gainer was Amway (M) Holdings which added 20 sen to RM7.50. - Bernama