Bursa Malaysia started trading early in the week on a positive note before retreating slightly due to profit-taking against selected heavyweights based on last week's gains.
At 9am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was down 0.52 points at 1,491.71 from Thursday's close of 1,492.23.
The index opened 0.44 points lower at 1,492.67.
In the broader market, gainers at 183 outnumbered losers at 141, while 233 counters were unchanged, 1,685 untraded and 18 suspended.
Total turnover at 262.89 million units worth RM76.49 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd's vice president of equity research, Thong Pak Leng, commented that the benchmark index may experience a small correction even though the market remains strong.
The streak, the firm predicts the trend of the index to be at the level of 1,490-1,500 today.
Heavyweight stocks saw Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) remain at RM8.86 and Public Bank lost 2 sen at RM4.62 while Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd added 3 sen at RM8.91, IHH Healthcare Bhd gained 2 sen at RM6.41 and CIMB Group Holdings Bhd rose 1 sen to RM5.22.
Active stocks saw CSH Alliance Bhd gain 0.5 sen to 7.5 sen and Metronic Global Bhd add 1.5 sen to 15.5 sen while Serba Dinamik Holdings Bhd fell 0.5 sen to 10 sen and Compugates Holdings Bhd and Ta Win Holdings Bhd remained 1 sen and 8.5 sen.
On the index board, FBM Emas Shariah index reached 5.64 points at 10,740.41 and FBM ACE grew 6.34 points at 4,841.66 while FBMT 100 Index decreased 4.64 points at 10,348.23, FBM Emas Index decreased 2.05 points at 10,599.85 and FBM 70 declined 10.18 points at 12,748.26
In terms of sectors, the Plantation index gained 27.93 points at 7,026.27, the Products and Services index gained 0.33 points at 184.70 and the Energy index gained 6.10 points at 677.34 while the Financial Services index gained 25.34 points at 16,620.05.
