KLCI succumbs to profit taking in early trade

KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI succumbed to some mild profit taking in early trade on Monday.

At 9.23am, the benchmark FBM KLCI had fallen 6.66 points to 1,584.60. The index opened at 1,588.07, down 3.19 points, from last Friday’s 1,591.26.

TA Securities said given the significant improvement in technical momentum indicators following last week's rebound, the FBM KLCI may have further upside room this week.

The research house said with more signs of progress in Russia/Ukraine peace talks which hopefully will result in an amenable resolution to the current conflict, risk sentiment should improve.

In addition, with our country getting closer to the endemic phase and reopening of international borders timeline this month-end, economic recovery plays should gain traction.

Kenanga Research said the week just ended saw the key FBM KLCI hitting a low of 1,554 on Tuesday only to rebound to as high as 1,595 on Friday before finishing at 1,591.

This translates to a week-on-week rise of 23.0 points or 1.5%.

“Technically speaking, after testing our support threshold of 1,550 numerous times only to stage subsequent rebounds, the benchmark FBMKLCI might have already found an intermittent footing following its retracement from a high of 1,620 in the beginning of March.

“That said, the bellwether will probably swing between our immediate support and resistance levels of 1,550 (S1) and 1,600 (R1) with a slight negative bias ahead,” Kenanga said.

On Bursa Malaysia, Chin Tek lost 35 sen to RM7.91, Hong Leong Financial Group fell 32 sen to RM19.40, Tenaga shed 16 sen to RM9.26 and Panasonic Manufacturing declined 16 sen to RM27.64.

Malaysian Pacific Industries surged RM1.10 to RM34.90, Heineken gained 70 sen to RM22.38 F&N added 38 sen to RM21.58 and Box-Pak rose 37 sen to RM1.62.