KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia edged higher in early trade following Wall Street’s overnight rebound, with technology and semiconductor counters among the top gainers.
Wall Street rebounded overnight as lower oil prices, falling US Treasury yields and strong jobs data eased concerns about the Fed’s first rate hike in over three years.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.62% to 51,779.85, the S&P 500 gained 1.14% to 7,637.74 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.69% to 26,418.30.
Back home, the FBM KLCI edged up 0.34 points, or 0.02%, to 1,675.08 after opening 1.98 points higher at 1,676.72.
Technology and semiconductor counters were among the top gainers. Malaysian Pacific Industries
surged RM1.44 to RM41.54, Pentamaster climbed 10 sen to RM5.32 and Dufu rose 10 sen to RM2.74.
MI Technovation gained eight sen to RM5.67, UWC added eight sen to RM6.36 and Unisem climbed six sen to RM4.21.
Other gainers included Sunway Construction, up 16 sen to RM7.28; Paragon Union, up 10 sen to RM1.52; and Telekom Malaysia, up six sen to RM7.86.
Among the decliners, PETRONAS Dagangan slid 34 sen to RM20.74, Nestle fell 22 sen to RM90.30, Carlsberg lost 12 sen to RM12.62 and Hong Leong Bank declined 10 sen to RM23.
Berjaya Research Sdn Bhd maintained a cautious outlook on the FBM KLCI amid elevated US Treasury yields and lingering concerns over the global interest rate outlook.
Nevertheless, the research house said the recent weakness could attract bargain hunting, particularly in fundamentally sound counters, as the key index approaches oversold territory.
“Investors will also be monitoring the upcoming Bank of Japan interest rate decision and Malaysia’s inflation data for further clues on the regional monetary policy outlook and domestic price pressures,” Berjaya Research said.
On the technical front, the research house said another bearish candlestick indicated a continued pullback in the key index. It placed immediate resistance at 1,687 points, followed by 1,700, with support at 1,666 and 1,655.
Meanwhile, Rakuten Trade expects the index to continue consolidating, although lower yields and oil prices may encourage selective bargain hunting.
