KUALA LUMPUR, April 5 — Bursa Malaysia turned easier at mid-morning today, weighed down by selling in selected heavyweight stocks.

At 11.00am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) pared its earlier gains, sliding 0.52 of-a-point from last Friday’s close of 1,585.35.

The index opened 0.46 points easier at 1,586.51.

However, on the broader market, gainers led losers 477 to 400, while 425 counters were unchanged, 829 untraded and eight others suspended.

Total volume stood at 3.37 billion shares worth RM1.04 billion.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd in a note said although the Wall Street was closed last Friday, the solid United States’ (US) job data boosted index futures.

The US unemployment rate declined to six per cent from 6.2 per cent last month, boosting the Dow Jones Index Average futures by 160 points, while the US 10-year Treasury yield also ended 1.71 per cent higher as the US economy continues to improve, it said.

"Therefore, we reckon market volatility may heighten. Although some regional markets are closed today, regional performances should be rather mixed.

"On the local front, we expect bargain hunting activities to persist in a cautious manner, thus we expect the index to hover within the 1,585 — 1,590 range today,” it said.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank added five sen to RM8.30, Petronas Chemical rose six sen to RM8.06 and Tenaga improved two sen to RM10.28.

Public Bank reduced one sen to RM4.23 while IHH Healthcare was flat at RM5.29.

Among the active counters, Parkson added 2.5 sen to 27.5 sen, Berjaya and Matang improved one sen each to 46 sen and 13 sen, respectively, while both Focus Dynamic’s warrant and Luster Industries eased half-a-sen to one sen and 13 sen, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index added 17.49 points to 11,760.59, the FBM 70 rose 75.60 points to 15,804.92, the FBMT 100 increased 14.31 points to 11,407.67, the FBM Emas Shariah advanced 26.77 points to 13,032.62, and the FBM ACE improved 6.16 points to 9,795.28.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index went down 16.41 points to 7,029.13 and the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.64 of-a-point to 194.66, while the Financial Services Index advanced 25.47 points to 15,302.03. — Bernama