KUALA LUMPUR: A mixed performance on Wall Street overnight coupled with caution over the upcoming release of US inflation data kept Bursa Malaysia in a cautious mood on Tuesday.
The market opened slightly higher following the previou session's decline but remained below the 1,500 psychological resistance.
At 9.05am, the FBM KLCI was up 3.2 points to 1,499.23. The market was slightly positive with 108 gainers compared with 95 decliners.
Trading volume was 144.39 million shares valued at RM34.15mil.
"Given the market has rallied over the past two months, investors will be staying on the sidelines and monitoring closely the CPI data in order to decide on the market directions as well as the FOMC’s interest rate decision moving forward.
"Also, the development of China’s aggressive drills near Taiwan, may pose downside risk to the stock markets," said Malacca Securities Research in a report.
However, it added that investors may be positioning themselves ahead of the earnings season this month.
Most blue chips rebounded in the early morning session. Press Metal
recovered five sen to RM4.80, Tenaga Nasional gained two sen to RM8.37 and PETRONAS Chemicals rose one sen to RM8.74.
Technology counters meanwhile wobbled following Nvidia's weaker-than-expected revenue announcement. MPI dropped 40 sen to RM32 and Frontken slid three sen to RM2.77.
Among actives, G3 rose one sen to five sen, Metronic added 0.5 sen to seven sen and Hextar Industries fell 1.5 sne to 34.5 sen.
