KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips struggled early Thursday after the selloff the previous day and with the 14th General Election looming, investors remained risk adverse.
Weighing on the FBM KLCI were Petronas Gas and Hong Leong Bank.
At 9.24am, the KLCI was down 2.65 points or 0.14% to 1,849.38. Turnover was 226.95 million shares valued at RM101.27mil. There were 132 gainers, 163 losers and 176 counters unchanged.
Maybank Investment Bank Research sees appetite for risk falling as GE14 looms following the selloff on Bursa Malaysia on Wednesday.
“Yesterday’s selloff could trigger the next wave down. Technically, the KLCI could retest its critical support at the 50-day EMA line,” it said.
Meanwhile, the US dollar traded near a four-month high against a basket of currencies on Thursday, having recovered from a brief dip after the Federal Reserve kept interest rates steady and said inflation had "moved close" to its target, Reuters reported.
The dollar's index against a basket of six major peers last stood at 92.645.
Petronas Gas lost 38 sen to RM17.82 with 6,200 shares done and Hong Leong Bank was down 14 sen to RM18.70.
F&N fell the most among the consumer stocks, down 36 sen to RM35.52, BAT lost 18 sen to RM23.60 and Carlsberg 14 sen lower at RM18.42. However, Dutch Lady added 22 sen to RM67.
KESM slipped 10 sen to RM15.92and Takaful nine sen lower at RM3.50.
Allianz was the top gainer, up 30 sen to RM11.70 with 100 shares done.
Petronas Dagangan gained 10 sen to RM26.84.
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