Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) maintained its upward momentum to stay above the 1,450 level yesterday as foreign buying continued, especially in banking stocks.
“While we believe the index would see more upside, going forward, fresh concerns over the US banks may impact sentiment in the immediate term. Hence, expect the index to trend within the 1,445 and 1,455 range today.
“We noticed that the crude palm oil price has weakened sharply over the past week, thus it may add pressure on the plantation sector,” he told Bernama.
Thong said Wall Street closed lower last night following Moody’s downgrade on the US banking sector, reigniting concerns of a potential crisis within the sector.
Meanwhile, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said in a note that the recent pullback has come to an end and the local bourse is back on the recovery drive.
“Given that the sentiment is turning more positive as of late, buying momentum might likely sustain. Still, we caution that gains may be measured ahead of Malaysia’s state elections, coupled with the renewed volatility on Wall Street.
“The lower liners are also on a better footing with rotational play resumed ahead of the quarterly reporting season,” it said, adding that investors will be keeping a close tab on China’s inflation rate and Malaysia’s retail sales data that will be released today.
At 9.07am, the FBM KLCI eased 0.89 of-a-point to 1,450.11 from 1,451.0 at yesterday’s close.
The key index opened 0.70 of-a-point lower at 1,450.3.
On the broader market, losers led gainers 134 to 110, while 235 counters were unchanged, 1,811 untraded and 16 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 287.38 million units worth RM73.74 million.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank eased three sen to RM8.94, CIMB slipped two sen to RM5.58, CelcomDigi shed one sen to RM4.28, while Tenaga, Petronas Chemicals and IHH Healthcare were flat at RM9.60, RM6.83 and RM5.93 respectively.
Among the actives, Classita, Sapura Energy, Handal Energy and KGW inched up 0.5 sen each to 12 sen, six sen, 25 sen, and 22 sen respectively, but Tanco trimmed 0.5 sen to 55 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 7.2 points lower at 10,647.91, the FBMT 100 Index declined 6.83 points to 10,341.03, the FBM Emas Shariah Index dipped 5.46 points to 10,877.7, the FBM 70 Index shaved off 11.27 points to 13,941.5, and the FBM ACE Index fell 15.77 points to 5,277.91.
Sector-wise, the financial services index decreased 20.85 points to 16,225.54, the energy index slid 0.64 of-a-point to 829.17, while the industrial products and services index added 0.12 of-a-point to 166.82 and the plantation index climbed 1 point to 7,144.32.