KUALA LUMPUR: After the battering over the past two months by foreign funds following the Pakatan Harapan-led victory and worsening US-China trade wars, the local stock market advanced as investors clung on to hopes for a window-dressing for the second quarter.
At 9.42am, the FBM KLCI was up 11.48 points or 0.69% to 1,677.16. Turnover was 341.14 million shares valued at RM206.70mil. There were 249 gainers, 154 losers and 226 counters unchanged.
Asian shares remained near nine-month lows on Friday despite small gains on Wall Street overnight, as ongoing concerns over global trade frictions dampened sentiment, though a move to ease foreign investment curbs in China could boost markets there, Reuters reported.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was flat, Australian shares were 0.1% higher, while Japan's Nikkei stock index was down 0.2%.
Kenanga Research said technically, the chart lacks any signs of a possible rebound at the immediate juncture. Trend lines are highly negative with key SMAs in a “Death Cross” condition, while the MACD had also formed a bearish crossover.
“From here, a continued sell-down could bring the index down to its support at 1,615 (S1) – last retested in late 2016. Should a positive turnaround occur, resistances can be found at 1,720 (R1) and possibly 1,760 (R2),” it said.
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was the top gainer, up 50 sen to RM14.40, Maybank added 13 sen to RM8.97 and Digi 12 sen to RM4.09.
Glove makers were among the top performers. Top Glove rose 38 sen to RM12, Supermax 18 sen to RM4.20 and Hartalega 16 sen to RM5.84.
Tenaga rose 30 sen to RM13.96. Companies will have to pay more for their power supply from July 1 to December 2018 following the implementation of a surcharge of 1.35 sen per kWh due to higher fuel and generation costs. However, Tenaga said the imbalance cost pass-through (ICPT) mechanism would not impact it.
Heineken rose 18 sen to RM21.80 but Nestle fell RM2.60 to RM144.80 and Dutch Lady lost 98 sen to RM67.
KL Kepong fell 34 sen to RM23.76 and Chin Tek 15 sen to RM7.
Petronas Gas fell 12 sen to RM17.40 and Hong Leong Bank eight sen to RM18.12.
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