KUALA LUMPUR (March 8): Bursa Malaysia turned mixed at the midday break on Friday as mild profit-taking in small-cap counters capped earlier gains.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI gained 1.30 points to 1,537.13 from Thursday's close of 1,535.83.

The benchmark index, which opened 0.69 points higher at 1,536.52, moved between 1,535.32 and 1,540.50 during the morning trading session.

However, the broader market was negative with losers edging past gainers 415 to 405, while 425 counters were unchanged, 1,031 untraded and 29 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 1.68 billion units worth RM1.19 billion.

Malacca Securities said in a note that it expected a further rebound in small-cap counters after the recent consolidation phase.

Among the heavyweight counters, Malayan Banking Bhd gained three sen to RM9.73, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd bounced 12 sen to RM6.64 and Tenaga Nasional Bhd rose four sen to RM11.20. Public Bank Bhd was unchanged at RM4.30 while Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd slid nine sen to RM6.85.

As for the active counters, AMMB Holdings Bhd bagged 10 sen to RM4.05, Master Tec Group Bhd went up 1.5 sen to 82.5 sen while Fitters Diversified Bhd was flat at 5.5 sen and Malayan United Industries Bhd was unchanged at six sen. Harvest Miracle Capital dropped half-a-sen to 11 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 15.75 points firmer at 11,408.74, the FBMT 100 Index improved by 16.91 points to 11,072.37 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased by 9.03 points to 11,410.67.

The FBM 70 Index bagged 64.71 points to 15,397.98 while the FBM ACE Index slipped 16.24 points to 4,689.04.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index jumped 83.00 points to 17,346.84, the Plantation Index garnered 25.05 points to 7,292.86 and the Energy Index improved by 4.95 points to 902.16. The Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 0.61 of a point to 174.44.