Worries about rising Covid cases, full lockdown weigh

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia edged lower in early Friday trade as investors worried about the record high Covid-19 infections and deaths and the possibility of a full lockdown in Selangor.

At 9.37am, the FBM KLCI was down by 7.62 points or 0.48% to 1,567.70. Turnover was 1.43 billion shares valued at R<651.28mil. Decliners led advancers 617 to 162 while 305 counters were unchanged.

Asian stocks climbed early Friday after technology companies led a Wall Street rebound on economic optimism and easing concern about the possibility of reduced US stimulus, Bloomberg reported. The dollar held a decline.

Shares rose in Japan, South Korea and Australia. Overnight, nearly all major industry groups in the S&P 500 climbed, while gains in Apple Inc. and Tesla Inc. helped the Nasdaq 100 rally past its 50-day moving average.

A drop in U.S. initial jobless claims put the focus back on the economic recovery and away from fears that price pressures imperil loose financial conditions. Contracts on the tech-heavy gauge and the S&P 500 edged up.

Overnight, oil prices fell more than 2%, marking a third day of losses, after diplomats said progress was made toward a deal to lift U.S. sanctions on Iran, which could boost crude supply, Reuters reported.

Brent crude fell US$1.55, or 2.3%, to settle at $65.11 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude ended $1.31, or 2.1%, lower at $62.05 a barrel. Both contracts fell around 3% in the previous session.

At Bursa on Thursday, foreign funds turned net buyers at RM58.9mil and local retailers at RM25.9mil but local funds were net sellers at RM84.8mil.

Rakuten Trade said it expects the local market to trend sideways due to lack of catalysts and it expects the KLCI to hover in the range of 1,570-1,580.

F&N fell 38 sen to RM26.62 on worries about the impact of higher commodity prices but Neslte added 60 sen to RM135.79.

Petronas Dagangan lost 34 sen to RM18.90 as crude oil prices fell.

MPI fell the most among teach-related stocks, down 46 sen to RM34.34, PMB Tech 32 sen to RM5.30, Vitrox 22 sen to RM14.90 and KESM lost 22 sen to RM11.66.

Widetech fell 19 sen to RM3.19 after it was queried by Bursa Securities over the unusual market activity where it hit limit-up the previous day to the a record high on Thursday.

Y&G rallied 21 sen to RM1.71 and Sedania 18.5 sen to 79 sen in the absence of any fresh positive catalysts.

HLFG was up 22 sen to RM16.92, Adventa 10 sen to RM2.49 and SKP Resources eight sen to RM1.37.