KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia traded sideways in early trade on lack of fresh leads, amid negative sentiment.
At 9.09am, the index added 0.21 of-a-point to 1,438.33. It opened 0.86 of a point at 1,438.98.
Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.20% to end at 31,438.26.The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.30% and 0.72% to end at 3,900.11 and 11,524.55 respectively.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd is cautiously optimistic on the performance of local stocks in the near term given the improvement of regional sentiment while valuation of the benchmark index remains attractive as compared with its regional peers.
Nonetheless, it said investors shall be wary volatility of both regional and global remain high.
“Hence, we anticipate the index to trend within the 1,430-1,450 range today. Meanwhile, Brent crude oil ended lower at US$110 per barrel,” Rakuten said.
TA Securities said the local market should continue to trade sideways given the cautious market undertone amid the absence of fresh catalysts, pending the anticipated window-dressing ahead of the first-half calendar end.
“On the index, key chart support remains at 1,427, last Thursday's intra-day low, which must hold to prevent a further selloff to the next crucial support seen at 1,394, the 38.2%FR level.
“The next critical support below will be 1,323, which is the 23.6%FR level. Immediate overhead resistance will be 1,480, and then the 1,500 psychological level, with 1,520, 1,540 and 1,570 as tougher upside hurdles,” it added.
On Bursa Malaysia, Nestle rose 30 sen to RM133.80, Boxpak hit the limit up, rising 30% to RM1.30, BAT added 18 sen to RM10.98 and Sarawak Oil Palms
climbed eight sen to RM4.26.
Malaysian Pacific Industries shed 34 sen to RM28.84, Petronas Dagangan fell 28 sen to RM20.78, Aeon Credit lost 14 sen to RM13.36 and Berjaya Food declined 11 sen to RM4.18.
Green Packet, the most actively traded counter fell 0.5 sen to six sen with 78.11 million shares done.
Sapura Energy, which returned to the black gained 0.5 sen to five sen with 62.25 million shares traded.
