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Blue chips waver but Petronas Dagangan, Tenaga support

KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips wavered in early Monday trade due to the weaker market sentiment overseas but some nibbling of Petronas Dagangan and Tenaga Nasional helped shore up the FBM KLCI.

At 9.15am, the KLCI was up 0.27 of a point or 0.02% to 1,610.54. Turnover was 119.64 million shares valued at RM44.64mil. There were 103 gainers, 170 losers and 197 counters unchanged.

Reuters reported US stock futures fell and Asian shares slipped in early trade on Monday on growing uncertainty over whether the United States and China will be able to reach a deal to end their trade war after Washington sharply hiked tariffs. E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 shed 1.1%.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.2%, nearing its two-month low marked on Thursday. Japan’s Nikkei average sunk as much as 1.0% to hit its lowest level since March 28. It last traded down 0.6%.

CIMB Equities Research continues to advocate investors to stay on the sidelines this week to the sluggish technical outlook for the KLCI.

“The index is currently retesting 1,610. A break below the critical 1,610-1,600 levels would be bearish for the market. Nevertheless, any positive news coming from the trade disputes is likely to trigger a significant rebound,” it advised investors.

Petronas Dagangan rose 16 sen to RM24.40 with 800 shares done, PPB Group added eight sen to RM18.68, Tenaga gained six sen to RM11.86 and MAHB five sen to RM7.20 in thin trade.

Other gainers were Pentamaster, up 11 sen to RM4.21 and Unisem nine sen to RM2.77.

Tong Herr added 10 sen to RM3.50, Harn Lern and Berjaya Toto four sen each to 68.5 sen and RM2.54.

Nestle fell 40 sen to RM143.60, BAT 18 sen to RM33.80 and Ajinomoto 12 sen to RM17.50.

Hong Leong lost 20 sen to RM19.30, Sime Plantation seven sen to RM4.88, IHH six sen to RM5.41.

Nexgram was the most active, skidding 0.5 sen to 1.5 sen with 8.92 million shares traded.

Source: TheStar