Shares on Bursa Malaysia suffer a dip

Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened lower in early trading Monday, pressured by profit-taking and Wall Street's weak performance, dealers said.

After 30 minutes of trading, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 5.28 points to 1,661.07 vis-a-vis Friday's 1,666.35 close.

HwangDBS Vickers Research said Wall Street tumbled between 1.5 per cent and 2.2 per cent Friday as sentiments were affected by poor corporate earnings.

"This will likely put pressure on our Malaysian bourse," it said in a research note.

The benchmark index, which hit a new peak of 1,670.16 before settling at 1,666.35 last week, could pull back towards its immediate support level of 1,655 ahead, the research house said.

The Finance Index dipped 45.62 points to 14,839.18, the Plantation Index lost 12.86 points to 8,182.75 and the Industrial Index eased 1.69 points to 2,866.11.

The FBM Emas Index dwindled 32.42 points to 11,279.74, the FBM Mid 70 Index shed 21.36 points to 12,148.37, the FBM Ace Index was 3.28 points lower at 4,279.51 and the FBMT100 slipped 32.37 points to 11,118.63.

Losers led gainers 169 to 50, with 168 counters unchanged. Volume stood at 116.24 million shares worth RM94.900 million.

Actives, Astro slid 10 sen to RM2.90, Scomi-Wa fell half sen to seven sen and Scomi was flat at 41.5 sen. Heavyweights, Maybank and Sime Darby lost 10 sen each to RM9.08 and RM9.78, respectively, while Axiata fell eight sen to RM6.60.