KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI picked up 6.52 points in the morning session to 1,690.13 amid muted trading activity.
Turnover remained tepid in Thursday trading due to the Chinese New Year celebrations. At 12.30pm, there were 683.31 million shares exchanging hands for a value of RM443.38mil.
From a technical standpoint, the benchmark index remains in consolidation mode as it is staying ahead of the 50-day simple moving average but falling short of breaking free of the overhead resistance.
"A positive outcome from the trade talk may see the index trend higher to its resistances at 1,730 (R1) and 1,800 (R2).
"Should the index break below both the 20 and 50-day SMA, support levels can be identified at 1,650 (S1) and 1,600 (S2)," said Kenanga Research in today's research note.
Trading in Asia also remains stagnant due to China's markets being shuttered for the week.
Japan's Nikkei Index was down 0.6%, tracking Wall Street indices that fell overnight on weak earnings announced by tech companies, while Australia's ASX200 jumped 1.2% as the central bank announced an easier monetary policy.
Stocks seeing buying interest on Bursa Malaysia included Tenaga Nasional rising 22 sen to RM13.16, Maxis gaining 14 sen to RM5.70 and Genting climbing 13 sen to RM7.10.
Mesiniaga jumped 19 sen to RM1.80, a multi-year high while VS Industry extended its recovery with a 2.5 sen gain to 84 sen.
Leading declining counters were United Plantation falling 32 sen to RM26.48, BAT sliding 22 sen to RM38 and F&N dropping 22 sen to RM33.82.
Rising US crude inventories caused prices to pull back on Thursday even as Opec-led supply cuts helped to prop up the value of the commodity.
US crude slid 11 cents to US$53.90 a barrel and Brent crude dropped 19 cents to US$62.51 a barrel.
On the forex market, the ringgit was stronger against key currencies. It gained 0.35% against the greenback at 4,0785, 0.6% against the pound sterling at 5.2737 and 0.5% against the Singapore dollar at 3.0078.
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