KLCI defends position above 1,600 level

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended broadly higher at midday, with buying support across the board to stay above the 1,600-point level.

At 12.30pm, the 30-stock index stood at 1,609.79, up 8.44 points, or 0.53%. The local bourse opened 2.91 points higher at 1,604.26 this morning. 

There were 372 gainers, 326 losers and 295 counters traded unchanged on the Bursa Malaysia. Turnover was 786.81 million shares valued at RM495.83mil. 

The ringgit was down 0.14% against the US dollar at 4.1920, and fell 0.02% against the euro. The local currency gained 0.14% against the pound at 5.3117 and advanced 0.05% to 3.0446 against the Singapore dollar. 

JF Apex Research said the technical indicators for FBM KLCI were mixed with the RSI hovering above the oversold zone while the MACD hovered below its signal line.

“In February, the index failed to breach the 200-day moving average and then corrected downwards. After last week’s flattish trend, the index could hover sideways below the resistance of 1625 points. 

“Longer term outlook remains negative with the index still in the downtrend channel since February,” it said.

The Research house said the supports were at 1,565 (S1) and 1,500 (S2) while resistance were at 1,625 (R1) and 1,655 (R2).

On Bursa Malaysia, Nestle rose 30 sen to RM146.60, Public Bank gained 16 sen to RM22.94 while APM added 15 sen to RM3.

Among heavyweights, Sime Darby Plantation gained 12 sen to RM4.83, Tenaga Nasional rose 12 sen to RM11.48 and Genting earned 11 sen to RM6.41.

Tenaga’s net profit for the first quarter ended March 31 stood at RM1.55bil, down 26% from RM2.11bil in the same period a year ago. Its revenue, however, was 7.9% higher at RM13.24bil against RM12.74bil previously. 

Of the actively-traded stocks, Vortex fell 22% to 19.5 sen, Scomi shed 26.67% to 5.5 sen while KNM gained 2.63% to 19.5 sen.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that China’s major stock indexes extended gains on Tuesday as a chief financial regulator downplayed the impact of the trade war with the United States, and as foreign investors bought shares ahead of MSCI’s weighting increase.

The Hang Seng index added 0.5% to 27,422.98 points, while the Hong Kong China Enterprises Index gained 0.5% to 10,458.41 points.

China’s CSI300 index rose 1% to 3,674.14 points at the end of the morning session, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.9% to 2,918.12 points.

Around the region, MSCI’s Asia ex-japan stock index was firmer by 0.31%, while Japan’s Nikkei index was up 0.39%.