KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 19 — Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session mixed on profit-taking, with a mild pick-up in the ACE market, said dealers.

At lunch break, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia (FBM KLCI) rose 3.28 points to 1,579.12 after moving between 1,573.84 and 1,582.53 throughout the morning trading session.

The index opened 4.34 points higher at 1,580.18 compared with yesterday’s close of 1,575.84.

On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 651 to 464, while 423 counters were unchanged, 638 untraded and 10 others suspended.

Volume stood at 9.1 billion units worth RM3.69 billion.

The regional markets were also subdued today, as Japan’s Nikkei trimmed 1.24 per cent to 29,860.79, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng decreased 0.85 per cent to 30,335.51 and Singapore’s STI was down 1.28 per cent to 2,871.74. 

In a note today, Public Investment Bank said the local bourse might be on a negative bias today, tracking the United States (US) stock markets which fell after a sell-off in US government debt, sparked by expectations that Joe Biden’s US$1.9 trillion stimulus push will stoke higher levels of inflation.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank rose three sen to RM7.96, Public Bank gained one sen to RM4.12, while Tenaga was flat at RM9.85.

Meanwhile, PChem was down three sen to RM7.44 and Top Glove eased four sen to RM6.03.

Of the actives, Dagang Nexchange trimmed three sen to 74 sen, while Managepay improved 5.5 sen to 26.5 sen, EA Holdings was half-a-sen higher at 4.5 sen, and Iris Corporation added 1.5 sen to 39.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 28.25 points to 11,598.21, the FBMT 100 Index increased 30.79 points to 11,278.5, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 21.75 points higher at 13,078.07.

The FBM 70 added 70.25 points to 15,301.27, and the FBM ACE surged 163.7 points to 11,251.65.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index gained 1.83 points to 14,804.95, the Industrial Products and Services Index increased 0.66 of-a-point to 181.71, while the Plantation Index shed 17.44 points to 7,158.44. — Bernama