Bursa struggles on lack on strong catalysts, Asian markets drift
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia struggled early Thursday on the lack of convincing catalysts while the undertone of the market continued to be weak following the continued selling by foreign funds.
At 9.29am, the FBM KLCI was up just 0.47 of a point or 0.03% to 1,595.06. Turnover was 307.43 million shares valued at RM128.98mil. There were 180 gainers, 151 losers and 259 counters unchanged.
Stocks in Asia drifted after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting did little to alter expectations for more interest-rate cuts. Treasuries steadied, Bloomberg reported.
Japanese shares nudged higher, along with gains in Australia. South Korea opened flat. Trading activity has been reduced this week ahead of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s address on Friday and volume was again subdued in Treasury futures.
On the technical outlook for the KLCI after the decline on Wednesday, Kenanga Research said chart-wise, the underlying trend of the index remains bearish as the index remains below all its key-SMAs.
“However, we do not discount the possibility of a technical-rebound given that stochastic has been in oversold territory for a long period of around one month.
“Look out for overhead resistance levels at 1,630 (R1) and 1,650 (R2). Should selling pressure continue, key support levels to keep an eye on are 1,570 (S1) and 1,550 (S2), ” it said.
Amway rose 15 sen to RM6.15, Petronas Gas 10 sen to RM15.92, G3 nine sen to RM2.48 while Hong Leong Bank climbed six sen to RM17.
Pecca, Serba Dinamik and UWC added five sen each to RM1.30, RM4.45 and RM1.41 respectively. MNRB added four sen to RM1.09.
Berjaya Land was the most active with 27.45 million shares, gaining one sen to 23.5 sen. JAKS added 3.5 sen to 85.5 sen with 221.12 million units traded.
Petronas Dagangan fell 34 sen to RM22.82 with 100 shares done. Westports and Crest Builder lost five sen each to RM3.97 and 97 sen while Takaful and MSM were down four sen each to RM6.02 and RM1.44.
Source: TheStar