KUALA LUMPUR: There was cautious movement on the domestic market on Wednesday as investors awaited the conclusion of the the US Federal Open Market Committee meeting later tonight, which would reveal the Fed's latest interest rate decision.
At 9.05, the FBM KCI was up 0.1 points to 1,463.79, as investors chose to hold on to positions despite a sharp decline on Wall Street overnight, triggered by a profit warning from Walmart that renewed recession fears.
The US is also set to release gross domestic product data this week, which could point to a second consecutive quarter of contraction, confirming a technical recession.
"The local market should extend range bound trade with most investors sidelined pending the closely watched US Federal Reserve monetary policy decision for leads," said TA Securities in its daily market commentary.
Immediate index resistance will be near 1,480, with the 1,500 psychological level, 1,520 and 1,540 acting as tougher upside hurdles.
"Immediate support is at 1,430, with the recent low of 1,408 as key support to prevent further selloff to next crucial support at 1,394, the 38.2% FR level," it added.
In the first five minutes of trade, there were 98.52 million shares exchanging hands for a value of RM35.1mil.
There were a negative bias on the market given the highly cautious environment with 127 decliners compared with 94 gainers.
Blue chips on the back foot included PETRONAS Chemicals down four sen to RM8.58, Press Metal
sliding four sen to RM4.46 and IOI falling six sen to RM3.97.
Top actives on the market were Serba Dinamik unchanged at 11 sen, Sapura Energy flat at 4.5 sen and Metronic up 0.5 sen to 10.5 sen.
