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Share prices on Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session mixed today as investors remained on the sidelines amid the cautious market sentiment, dealers said.

At lunch break, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 2.12 points to 1,521.74. It had opened 0.01 of a point higher at 1,523.87.

Another dealer said investors preferred to take a conservative approach amid continued talks between the Greek government and private-sector creditors over its debt crisis.

"Greece and its private-sector creditors agreed to meet again on Friday in a race to negotiate a 100 billion euro (US$131 billion) debt write-down for the country," he said. 

A total of 1.21 billion shares worth RM893.67 million changed hands with gainers leading losers by 357 to 345. 

The Finance Index slipped 29.87 points to 13,466.74, while the Plantation Index gained 16.44 points to 8,743.65 and the Industrial Index earned 2.99 points to 2,795.69. 

The FBM Emas rose 5.88 points to 10,580.49, the FBM Mid 70 jumped 75.77 points to 12,137.79 and the FBM ACE increased 9.74 points to 4,460.14. 

Among active stocks, The Media Shoppe stood unchanged at 11.5 sen, while Kayo Industries added two sen to six sen and DRB-Hokum advanced four sen to 10 sen.

Among heavyweights, Patrons Chemicals earned one sen to RM6.68, while Mabank and Same Darby eased one sen each to RM8.21 and RM9.07, respectively. -- BERNAMA

NEW YORK: US stocks erased early gains on solid earnings reports from Caterpillar and Netflix to end lower on Thursday, with some weak economic data and profit-taking seeming to drive the selling. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 22.33 points (0.18 percent) at 12,734.63. 

The broad-based S&P 500 slipped 7.60 (0.57 percent) to 1,318.45, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite dropped 13.03 (0.46 percent) to 2,805.28. 

A modest rise in weekly jobless claims and poor figures for new home sales in December helped repress bullish sentiment, said Andrea Kramer of Schaeffer's Investment Research. 

The Dow blue chips got an early boost from Caterpillar, after it posted a 60 percent rise in net income to US$1.5 billion for the fourth quarter of 2011. 

Cat's stock rose more than four percent in early trade but closed with a modest 2.2 percent rise. 

Video rental house Netflix was up 22.1 percent after it reported late Thursday solid gains in its streaming service subscriber base. 

But shares in AT&T sank 2.5 percent after it turned in a whopping loss of US$6.7 billion for the fourth quarter, mainly due to charges from its failed takeover of T-Mobile. 

Staid, struggling retailer JC Penney surprised traders with a buoyant 2012 forecast, sending its shares rocketing 18.8 percent. 

United Continental Holdings, the parent of merged United and Continental airlines, jumped 6.3 percent after reporting losses narrowed in its fourth quarter, beating analyst expectations of a worse performance. 

Shares in biotech giant Amgen fell 1.6 percent after it announced the US$1.16 billion purchase of German-American cancer research firm Micromet, a deal in which it obtains Micromet's promising leukaemia therapy. 

The deal was worth US$11 a share for Micromet shareholders, and the share price on the Nasdaq soared US$32.1 percent to just below that level, at US$10.94. -- AFP