KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened lower after ending last week on a high due to profit-taking in certain heavyweights.

At 9am, the FBM KLCI was down 5.38 points to 1,547.45 as investors retraced some of last Friday's gains in a bout of profit-taking. The FBM KLCI closed at 1,552.83 points last Friday.

On the broader market, decliners led gainers 257 to 209 while 325 counters were unchanged, 1,516 untraded and 22 suspended.

Turnover amounted to 429.73 million units worth RM166.50 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice president Thong Pak Leng said the FBM KLCI surged past the 1,550 mark last Friday, attributed to some last minute buying.

However, he said the firm reckons market undertone may have turned cautious taking cue from Wall Street thus expect the index to hover within the 1,545-1,555 range today.

"Meanwhile, it is worthwhile to note that daily volume has improved to above 4 billion shares level as more money is being ploughed back into the blue chips of late.

"Hopefully this is sustainable as this will certainly cascade onto the smaller caps in due course," he said.

Among the heavyweights, Malayan Banking Bhd and Public bank Bhd were flat at RM9.71 and RM4.27 respectively, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd down eight sen to RM6.53, while Tenaga Nasional declined two sen to RM11.58 and Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd was flat at RM6.90.Of actives, Hong Seng Consolidated Bhd was flat at 1.5 sen, Sapura Energy Bhd was unchanged at 4.5 sen and PDZ Holdings Bhd was also the same at four sen.Ends