UALA LUMPUR: Key Asian markets and Bursa Malaysia edged higher early Tuesday after calm returned to the US markets and Wall Street chalked up some firm gains.
However, the FBM KLCI’s advance was held back by losses in Malaysia Airports (MAHB) after CIMB Equities Research lowered its target price from RM10.56 to RM7.30 as it will have to incur capex to address the weakest aspects of its service quality, under the pain of penalties.
At 9.30am, the KLCI was up 3.63 points or 0.2% to 1,833.80. Turnover was 245.58 million shares valued at RM135.58mil. There were 264 gainers, 128 losers and 244 counters unchanged.
Asian stocks pulled further away from two-month lows on Tuesday, lifted by Wall Street's extended rebound from last week's steep fall, Reuters reported.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.3% after sliding to its lowest level since Dec. 11 on Friday. Australian stocks rose 0.2% and South Korea's KOSPI climbed 0.9%. Japan's Nikkei added 0.75%.
Meanwhile, Hong Leong Investment Bank (HLIB) Research believes the recent recovery on Wall Street is only a short term technical rebound at this juncture as investors were scooping up oversold shares on solid fundamental companies after the heavy plunge last week.
The research house thinks the Dow Jones Industrial Average may revisit the resistance around 25,000 over the near term.
“Similarly, sentiments on the local front may stay positive, in tandem with the recovery on overseas markets and the FBM KLCI may challenge the 1,840 level,” it said.
BAT was the top gainer, up 64 sen to RM32.76 while Nestle added 40 sen to RM116.70 while Carlsberg gained 18 sen to RM16.54.
Hong Leong Bank and Genting Bhd
added 12 sen each to RM18.08 and RM8.92. Hartalega gained 14 sen to RM11.20 and Aeon Credit 10 sen to RM13.10.
MAHB fell 13 sen to RM8.99 with over three million shares done. Petronas Dagangan lost 12 sen to RM24.88.
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