KUALA LUMPUR: There was slight rally on the domestic market in early morning trade as stock prices rose following the positive performance on Wall Street last Friday.
However, there are expectations Bursa Malaysia will remain downbeat given the negative market breadth in all four trading days of the previous week.
"Technically speaking, the FBM KLCI remains vulnerable to further weakness in view of the prevailing negative momentum and bearish Parabolic SAR trend.
"On the chart, the benchmark index could be making its way to test the 1,400-psychological mark as it drifts towards our immediate support threshold of 1,395.
"Conversely, our first resistance barrier to block any relief rally still stands at 1,440," said Kenanga Research in its weekly technical outlook.
At 9.05am, the FBM KLCI was up 3.21 points to 1,421.65. Trading volume was 79.36 million valued at RM30.8mil
Market breadth was positive with 168 gainers compared with 82 decliners.
In early trade, blue chips seeing positive interest included PETRONAS Gas up 16 sen to RM16.58, Sime Darby Plantation
rising eight sen to RM4.16 and Axiata adding two sen to RM2.65.
Bank were mixed with CIMB gaining five sen to RM5.10, Public Bank dipping one sne to RM4.29, Maybank unchanged at RM8.59 and Hong Leong Bank flat at RM20.30.
Tenaga Nasional shed seven sen to RM7.92.
Palm oil mill solutions provider Ecoscience International, which made its debut on the ACE Market today, opened one sen lower from its initial public offering price at 29 sen.
The stock was the day's most highly traded with over 20 million units exchanging hands.
Other top actives included Green Packet up 0.5 sen to five sen and BSL Corp unchanged at 10 sen.
