KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips took a breather at midday on Friday as investors are expected to take profit after nine days of rally, as market sentiment continued to be curbed by trade wars.
The EU Trade Commission are said to be preparing a list of tit-for-tat actions in response to proposed U.S. tariffs on EU cars.
Overnight, President Donald Trump broke with 20 years of convention on not commenting about monetary policy, saying that he wasn’t thrilled about the US Federal Reserve’s current hikes. The White House subsequently issued a statement saying the president respects the central bank’s independence.
The benchmark FBM KLCI declined 7.64 points or 0.44% to 1,751.6 points at midday. It opened 0.73 points weaker at 1,758.51 this morning.
There were 288 gainers, 467 losers and 386 counters traded unchanged on the Bursa Malaysia. Turnover stood at 1.721 billion shares valued at RM1.25bil.
Technically, Kenanga Research said the index outlook was positive-bias as evidenced by stronger stance on MACD and RSI indicators.
“From here, we expect a possible short breather before continuation towards next resistance at 1,790 (R1) and 1830 (R2) further up. Meanwhile, support levels can be identified at 1,720 (S1) and 1,700 (S2),” the research house said.
On Bursa Malaysia, Nestle is biggest loser, easing 20 sen to RM147.60. Carlsberg shed 14 sen to RM18.94 and 11 Genting lost 11 sen to RM8.71.
Among the banks, Maybank fell one sen to RM9.80, Public Bank gained two sen to RM23.92, CIMB Group
eased five sen to RM5.81 while Hong Leong Bank declined two sen to RM18.48.
Iskandar Waterfront City Bhd is the most active counter with 121.9 million shares done. The counter rose nine sen to 83.5 sen on renewed hopes that its parent Iskandar Waterfront Holdings Sdn Bhd (IWH) may get a second chance to develop Bandar Malaysia.
Elsewhere in the region, China stocks fell as market sentiment continued to be curbed by a sliding yuan. The CSI300 index fell 0.4% to 3,414.78 points at the end of the morning session, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.1% to 2,769.20 points.
Reuters reported that China’s yuan plunged to its lowest in more than a year against the dollar after the central bank fixed a weak midpoint, but traders said major state banks sold dollars during the morning trading which slowed down the decline.
Japan’s Nikkei share average fell 0.49% to 22,652.42, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell down 0.54% at 27,858.23 and South Korea’s Kospi was up 0.16% at 2,285.95.
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