KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips got off to a cautious start on Wednesday with profit taking seen in Petronas Gas and Genitng Bhd while DrB-Hicom gave up part of its previous day’s gains when it streaked to a 20-year high.
At 9.30am, the FBM KLCI was down 1.88 points or 0.1% to 1,836.16. Turnover was 567.35 million shares valued at RM266.14mil. There were 291 gainers, 234 losers and 307 counters unchanged.
The ringgit rose 0.23% against the US dollar to 3.916 early Wednesday, says Reuters. Since start of 2018, the ringgit is up 3.27% from 4.044.
Asian shares scaled record peaks on Wednesday as strong corporate earnings and optimism on global growth outweighed concerns over trade tensions, while a fresh burst of speculative selling took the U.S. dollar to three-year lows, Reuters reported.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan had inched up 0.1%, having jumped 1.2% on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei edged down 0.4% as the yen strengthened, but that was from a 26-year top.
Spot Brent crude oil futures rose four cents to US$70 while US light crude gained 12 cents to US$64.59.
On the technical outlook, Kenanga Research said the KLCI index continues to lead key SMAs upwards with candlestick in a bullish state.
Overall, the technical picture remains in a “Golden Crossover” state, retesting the overhead resistance of 1,840, it said.
“Any near-term weakness is likely to be short-term in nature. Expect eventual gains towards overhead resistance level of 1,840 (R1) and a higher level at 1,866 (R2).
“Immediate support is seen at the psychological level of 1,800 (S1) and 1,793 (S2) next, where investors can look forward to buying on dips,” it said.
Petronas Gas fell the most, down 18 sen to RM17.98 as the recent rebound gave way to some profit taking. HLFG lost 10 sen to RM18 and Genting Bhd
eight sen lower at RM9.74.’
DRB-Hicom fell 11 sen to RM2.62 with over six million shares done.
Hartalega lost 10 sen to RM11.80, UMW nine sen to RM6.86, Time dotCom eight sen lower at RM8.92.
However, Petronas Dagangan gained 34 sen to RM25.14 but just 100 shares traded, KLKepong gained 18 sen to RM25.28 also with 100 shares done.
MyEG jumped 11 sen to RM2.76 on rising volume of 3.8 million shares traded.
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