Bursa Malaysia shrugs off Apple's revenue warning

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia experienced a rebound following yesterday's steep selloff even as markets are expected to weigh on Apple Inc's cut to its revenue forecast.

The tech giant issued its first revenue warning in over a decade as it said slowing China sales and fewer iPhone upgrades were the reason for the cut.

MSCI's broadest gauge of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.2% early in Asian trading.

Bucking expectations, the FBM KLCI rose in early morning trade in a bid to retrace some of the 22-point loss seen in the previous session.

The technical outlook on the index however continues to be negative, according to Kenanga research. 

"The technical outlook continues to lean towards a downside bias as the index formed a long bearish candlestick and is trading below its key SMAs. 

"We opine that the index may continue to trend down, given the poor signals from key momentum indicators, but may find support at 1,615 (S1) or 1,600 (S2) next."

At 9.10am, the FBM KLCI was up 3.32 points to 1,671.43. Turnover was 128.93 million shares valued at RM47.37mil. There were 142 gainers versus 86 decliners and 126 counters unchanged.

Among the heavyweight counters, Nestle rose RM1.10 to RM147.80, Petronas Dagangan gained 46 sne to RM26.46 and Hong Leong Bank rose 20 sen to RM20.50.

Most active counters were Inari falling 13 sen to RM1.34, Reach Energy slipping 1.5 sen to 28.5 sen and MyEG dropping 1.5 sen to 96.5 sen.

Among leading laggards, Globetronic shed 12 sen to RM1.60, KESM fell 10 sen to RM7.60 and QL Resources lost six sen to RM6.74.

In oil markets, prices rose about 2% in choppy trading on Wednesday, supported by a slight recovery on Wall Street, even as concerns remained about weakening global economic growth which could hurt demand for oil.