KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips were marginally higher in early Thursday trade, trailing again behind the key Asian markets, in the absence of strong fund leads while Bank Negara Malaysia was set to announce its monetary policy statement later in the day.
At 9.30am, the KLCI was up just one point or 0.06% to 1,758.24. Turnover was 234.17 million shares valued at RM124mil. There were 274 gainers, 104 losers and 222 counters unchanged.
Earlier, Asian shares scaled a two-year top on Thursday as investors wagered policy tightening in the United States would be glacial at best, lifting Wall Street to record peaks and lowering bond yields almost everywhere, Reuters reported.
Yet the overall mood was one of relief that Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen had not sounded more hawkish in her appearance before Congress, a green light for risk taking.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.45% to its highest since mid-2015. Japan's Nikkei firmed 0.4% and Australia's main index jumped 1%.
Kenanga Investment Bank Research cautioned though the KLCI staged a last-minute rebound to end 2.21 points or 0.13% higher at 1,757.24 on Wednesday and signalled a potential near-term recovery, the 20-day simple moving average (SMA) has now completed a “Death Crossover” with the 50-day SMA.
“This leads us to believe that any near-term relief will likely be temporary. Upside will likely be capped at 1,771/ 1,775 (R1) while downside levels are 1,750/1,754 (S1) and 1,729 (R2),” it said.
Economists, meanwhile said they did not expect the central bank to raise the overnight policy rate, now at 3%, to support both business activities and consumer spending.
At Bursa, Ajinomoto rose 42 sen to RM23.42, BAT 30 sen to RM42.88 while Dutch Lady
gained 10 sen to RM58.10.
SAM Engineering rose 22 sen to RM8.44, MPI 18 sen to RM13.30 while UMW and MAHB gained 10 sen each to RM5.69 and RM8.69.
Lotte Chemical Titian fell six sen to RM6.42. It made its debut on the Main Market at a revised price of RM6.50 on Tuesday.
Digi fell five sen to RM4.85 on weaker second quarter earnings. CIMB Equities Research sees Digi as a beneficiary of the market heading closer to network parity, which means the network experience is comparable with its competitors.
However, the research house expects subdued earnings in the near-term given intense prepaid competition. Its target price was RM5.
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