KUALA LUMPUR: The local market picked up in the final hour of the morning session to return from negative territory.
Global investor sentiment was weak on Thursday as trade relations between the US and China looked set to sour further with the Trump administration considering restricting some Chinese companies' ability to sell telecom equipment in the US.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was 4.16 points higher at 1,856.19, suggesting a resilience in the index's 1,850 support level.
Trading volume remains soft on the market with 936.76 million shares worth RM776.76mil traded. There were 375 decliners versus 290 gainers and 343 counters unchanged.
Leading the rebound was Maybank, which rose 12 sen to RM10.78. Nestle put on RM2.60 to RM135.70 while CIMB added six sen to RM7.10 and Petronas Chemicals gained seven sen to RM8.48.
Among telcos, Axiata added one sen to RM5.19, Maxis rose five sen to RM5.67 and Didi moved up one sen to RM4.57.
Taking losses, Public Bank slid 10 sen to RM23.90, Hong Leong Bank dropped 18 sen to RM18.66 and Petronas Gas fell 32 sen to RM17.88.
On the wider market, Dutch Lady
tracked higher by 16 sen to RM26.90, Lotte Chemicals Titan put on 11 sen to RM5.75 and Warisan moved 12 sen higher to RM2.16.
Meanwhile, Carlsberg lost 16 sen to RM18.40, Hartalega dropped 13 sen to RM5.65 and F&N shaved off 26 sen to RM35.62.
In oil markets, prices finally succumbed to rising US output and inventories that jumped to its highest level so far in 2018.
WTI crude slipped six cents to US$67.87 a barrel while Brent crude dropped 18 cents to US$73.18 a barrel.
The ringgit continued weakening against the US dollar, slipping 0.12% to 3.9392. It also slid 0.42% against the Singapore dollar to 2.9552 and moved marginally stronger against the pound sterling at 5.3560.
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