KUALA LUMPUR (April 16): The FBM KLCI remained lacklustre at mid-morning today, tracking regional markets, and eked out marginal gains.
At 10am, the FBM KLCI was up 1.77 points to 1,633.10.
Losers led gainers by 307 to 156, while 302 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 670.92 million shares valued at RM259.88 million.
The gainers included MISC Bhd, Hong Leong Industries Bhd, Amway (M) Holdings Bhd, UMW Holdings Bhd, Press Metal Aluminium Holdings Bhd, Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd, Kimlun Corp Bhd, Genting Bhd and MBM Resources Bhd.
The actives included Prestariang Bhd, Bumi Armada Bhd, Ekovest Bhd, Sapura Energy Bhd, Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd and Seacera Group Bhd.
The decliners included Allianz Malaysia Bhd, Petronas Dagangan Bhd, Nestle (M) Bhd and Malaysia-listed Hang Seng Index-linked put warrants.
Asian stocks hovered below a nine-month peak on Tuesday after disappointing bank earnings dented Wall Street, though recent signs the global economy is likely to avoid a sharper downturn helped limit the losses, according to Reuters.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan stood little changed, it said.
Hong Leong IB Research said that with the profit-taking activities emerging on Wall Street on the back of slightly weaker earnings and further delay on trade summit between US President Donald Trump and China President Xi Jinping, the ongoing season may provide a volatile trading tone on Wall Street.
"Nevertheless, should there be any positive surprises from trade front, we expect Dow to revisit the previous high along 26,951.
"Tracking the performances on the overnight Dow, we expect the cautious sentiment may spill over to local equities.
"Moreover, the construction stocks are likely to face with further profit-taking activities as the earnings contribution from ECRL may not reflect so soon in their financial results. Nevertheless, trading activities are likely to remain healthy amongst construction and building material (cement and steel). The FBM KLCI's resistance is located around 1,650," it said.