KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8 -- Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session in the red at midday today due to profit-taking in selected heavyweights. 

At 12.30pm, the benchmark index was 1.68 points lower at 1,607.93 against Thursday's close of 1,609.33 and moved between 1,606.02 to 1,611.34.   

The key index opened 2.24 points lower at 1,607.09.

On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 355 to 319 with 432 counters unchanged, 887 untraded and 16 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 1.71 billion shares worth RM928.94 million.

An analyst said investors are currently taking the cue on the profit made over the week, as the local bourse has risen above 1,610 benchmarks. 

"Besides profit-taking, they are also awaiting for key data which would be released next week including employment rate, industrial production data as well as 2019 third-quarter gross domestic product," she said. 

As for heavyweights, IOI Corporation was down one sen to RM4.33, Maxis and Sime Darby dipped five sen RM5.44 and RM2.30, Hong Leong Financial declined 20 sen to RM17.28 and Petronas Gas slipped six sen to RM16.54. 

Of the actives, Sapura Energy was up two sen to 28 sen, newly debutant Spring Art and Trive Property and NETX were all flat at 25 sen, 1.5 sen and two sen respectively. 

For top gainers, Southern Acids uptick 15 sen to RM3.80, UWC up 13 sen RM2.67, and Sarawak Consolidated gained up 10 sen to RM1.81 while for top losers, Nestle dipped 50 sen to RM146.40, United Plantation declined 88 sen to RM25.00 and Hong Leong Financial slipped 20 sen to RM17.28. 

The FBM Emas Index was 5.68 points lower at 11,383.69, the FBMT 100 Index dipped 6.93 points to 11,195.11 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 11.39 points to 11,908.42.

The FBM Ace declined 25.71 points to 4,961.07 and the FBM 70 was 10.96 points firmer at 14,098.18.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index loss 5.23 points to 15,686.18, the Industrial Products & Services Index edged up 0.09 of-a-point to 154.98 and the Plantation Index lost 32.98 points to 6,865.77.

-- BERNAMA