KUALA LUMPUR, April 30 — Bursa Malaysia opened higher but retreated thereafter, as earlier gains were snapped by mild profit-taking in plantation and technology counters amid mixed performance on the regional markets, dealers said.

At 9.30am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 5.49 points to 1,603.01 compared to 1,608.50 at Wednesday's close.

The market bellwether opened 6.71 points higher at 1,615.21.

Overall market breadth was negative with losers leading gainers 344 to 315, while 398 counters were unchanged, 1,134 untraded and 51 others suspended.

Total volume stood at 1.26 billion shares worth RM704.64 million.

Malacca Securities, in a research note, expects glove heavyweights to resume their rebound move over the near term, given the rising COVID-19 infections globally.

“We opine that steel or metal-related stocks may remain attractive over the near term amid a global spike in steel demand. Besides, we believe there is still some room for trading on plastic and packaging counters ahead of the release of the latest quarterly results.

“Market players might also be looking into oil and gas (O&G) stocks amid firmer crude oil prices. Commodity-wise, the crude palm oil (CPO) price staged a pullback after recent rallies, while oil price climbed above US$68 per barrel,” it said.

Among heavyweights, Maybank, Public Bank and TNB fell one sen each to RM8.24, RM4.16 and RM9.99, respectively, while Petronas Chemicals rose 16 sen to RM8.27 and IHH Healthcare gained one sen to RM5.40.

Among the active counters, Vortex Consolidated earned half-a-sen to 14.5 sen, Hiap Teck added three sen to 59.5 sen, while SC Estate eased half-a-sen to 11.5 sen and Focus Dynamics was flat at 13 sen.

Kuala Lumpur Kepong and Malaysian Pacific were among the top losers in the early session today, declining 64 sen and 36 sen to RM22.16 and RM39.30, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index shed 25.31 points to 11,815.50, the FBMT 100 decreased 29.20 points to 11,469.83, the FBM 70 was 0.90 of-a-point lower at 15,641.30, the FBM Emas Shariah fell 16.17 points to 13,289.25, while the FBM ACE was 0.75 of-a-point better at 8,865.75.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index erased 66.65 points to 6,849.27, the Financial Services Index reduced 63.96 points to 14,902.52, while the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 1.45 point to 200.17. — Bernama