KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia cooled following two days of gains as investors moved to take profits.
At midday, the FBM KLCI fell 9.25 points, or 0.62% to 1,482.26 as bank and telco stocks weighed on the index.
There were 430 gainers, 417 losers and 365 counters traded unchanged on the Bursa Malaysia. Turnover stood at 1.7 billion shares valued at RM1.05bil.
“Pending the new cabinet line-up announcement and Jerome Powell’s less hawkish remark coupled with a seasonally positive December outings (10Y/20Y: +2.6%/2.8%), KLCI may revisit the key 200D MA barrier or 1, 505 next before marching higher t owards 1,528-1,553 zones.
“On the flip side, a decisive breakdown below 1,454 -1,468 support will drag KLCI lower to 1,420-1436 levels,” Hong Leong Investment Bank Research said.
Rakuten Trade said sentiment remained cautious pending the announcement of the Cabinet anytime soon.
“As such, we expect the index to hover within the 1,485-1,500 range today with QL Resources and AMMB as the new index constituents replacing both Top Glove and Hartalega
,” it said.
“Meanwhile, the Ringgit strengthened to almost a 6-month high against the US dollar at RM4.40/USD1 in view of the less aggressive rate hike by the Federal Reserves which will benefit local importers especially for the consumer and industrial products related companies,” it added.
Laggards among the KLCI component stocks were Kuala Lumpur Kepong, which lost 44 sen to RM20.96, Tenaga, which fell 19 sen to RM9.31 and Hong Leong Financial Group, which eased 14 sen to RM18.62.
CIMB fell 10 sen to RM5.65, Public Bank declined six sen to RM4.41, RHB Bank lost three sen to RM5.57 and Maybank eased three sen to RM8.59.
Axiata and Digi fell five sen each to RM3.15 and RM3.94 respectively. Maxis declined two sen to RM3.93.
Malaysian Pacific Industries tumbled RM1.42 to RM30.28, Panasonic Manufacturing eased 30 sen to RM23.60 and Genting Plantations lost 14 sen to RM6.01.
Heineken added 48 sen to RM25.96, F&N gained 28 sen to RM21.28, PPB rose 22 sen to RM17.32 and Aeon Credit advanced 22 sen to RM13.24.
