KLCI dips in early trade, FGV up in active trade

KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips fell in early Monday trade as investors stayed away from big caps and instead focused on defensive and smaller counters for quick gains as market sentiment remained uncertain.

At 9.32am, the KLCI was down 0.91 of a point to 1,596.50. Turnover was 345.36 million shares valued at RM123.78mil. There were 185 gainers, 172 losers and 259 counters unchanged.

On Bursa Malaysia, Kenanga Research said last week, foreign funds turned net sellers totalling RM249.3mil compared to a cumulative net inflow of RM192.1m in the prior week.

“Chart-wise, the underlying trend of the index remains bearish as the index remains below its 50 and 100-day SMAs. Key support levels to watch out for are 1,570 (S1) and 1,550 (S2). Conversely, overhead resistance levels can be found at 1,630 (R1) and 1,650 (R2), ” it said.

Petronas Dagangan fell 18 sen to RM23.22, Petronas Chemicals nine sen to RM7.60. MAHB lost 11 sen to RM8.64, Muhibbah 11 sen to RM2.48 while Maxis shed five sen to RM5.62.

FGV rose 5.5 sen to 95 sen in very active trade while Ikhmas Jaya and Bumi Armada added 0.5 sen each to 13 sen and 33.5 sen.

Nestle rose the most, up 20 sen to RM145.40, Dutch Lady 16 sen to RM58, BAT 12 sen to RM19.80.

MISC and MPI added nine sen each to RM7.84 and RM9.20 while MFCB advanced six sen to RM4.

On the external front, futures on the S&P 500 Index rose 0.5% as of 10:06 a.m. in Sydney. The underlying gauge fell 0.5% on Friday, Bloomberg reported.

South Korea’s Kospi index dipped 0.2% but Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index added 0.5%. Japan was closed.