KUALA LUMPUR: Telekom Malaysia and Tenaga Nasional shored up the FBM KLCI early Wednesday while key Asian markets were cautious due to the US-China trade war tensions.
At 9.16am, the KLCI was up 3.99 points or 0.24% to 1,684.36. Turnover was 151.18 million shares valued at RM71.24mil. There were 131 gainers, 113 losers and 177 counters unchanged.
Kenanga Research said technically, the outlook of the KLCI appears bearish-bias at this juncture with immediate trend lines is highly negative while key SMAs remains in “death cross” state.
“Likewise, momentum indicator such as the MACD and RSI are not showing any strong signs of a change in pattern. From here, keen investors may buy-on-dips with lower supports at 1,720 (S1) and 1,680 (S2). Conversely, resistance can be identified at 1,790 (R1) and 1,830 (R2) higher up,” it said.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported Asian stocks were on shaky ground while the Chinese yuan stood near 11-month lows as the spectre of a China-US trade war haunted investors ahead of an end-of-week deadline for US tariffs on billions of dollars worth of Chinese imports.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged up 0.1% in early trade, a day after it hit a nine-month low. Japan's Nikkei lost 0.5%.
Telekom rose 10 sen to RM3.41 in active trade. CIMB Equities Research is maintaining its hold call with an unchanged target price of RM4.30 and it awaits the finalisation of wholesale highspeed broadband (HSBB) prices.
Tenaga rose six sen to RM14.50. KL Kepong gained 10 sen to RM24.20, IHH eight sen to RM6.08 in thin trade.
QL Resources and Pos Malaysia added five sen each to RM5.95 and RM3.88. Taliworks rose 4.5 sen to RM1.02 and Tan Chong four sen higher at RM1.82.
MPI fell 15 sen to RM9.81, PPB Group 14 sen to RM19.62, Petronas Gas 10 sen lower at RM17.30, Lion Industries nine sen lower at 71 sen. Bursa lost nine sen also to RM7.47.