KUALA LUMPUR: The domestic market remained shaky as investors stayed cautious over instability in the global banking system although last Friday's positive Wall Street performance offered some support for global equities.
At the start of trading, Malaysia's benchmark FBM KLCI rose 3.14 points to creep above the 1,400 psychological support, suggesting the index was content to stick to a sideways trading direction.
According to Kenanga Research, the coming weak is expected to be quiet save for the release of the Securities Commission's and Bank Negara's respective annual reports, which could offer some insight into developments in the capital markets and the economy.
However, the research firm expects the market to stay nervous following the previous week's jittery market performance.
The FBM KLCI, which has ended in the red in eight of the last nine weeks, has logged a cumulative loss of 100.6 points or 6.7% since Jan 20 this year.
"While the bearish momentum will likely persist – as currently indicated by the sliding Parabolic SAR trend and the 50-day SMA cutting below the 100-day SMA – the bellwether may strive to regain its footing following any further weakness.
"On balance, the FBM KLCI could swing sideways with a slight downward bias, possibly testing again our first support threshold of 1,395, a break of which may then push the benchmark index towards its preceding trough of 1,373 touched in mid-October last year.
"Our immediate resistance hurdle to counter any intermittent runup stays at 1,440," said the research firm.
On the blue-chip index, bank stocks stayed mostly firm with Public Bank rising two sen to RM3.92 while other major players remained unchanged.
IHH rose four sen to RM5.83, Press Metal
gained four sen to RM4.71 and PETRONAS Gas climbed 32 sen to RM16.44.
There was also investor buying in MPI, up 28 sen to RM29.34, Genting rising 10 sen to RM4.60 and Genting Malaysia adding nine sen to RM2.64.
On the broader market, Gamuda jumped eight sne to RM4.18 while BAT rose 18 sen to RM10.66.
Top actives on the market included Hong Seng flat at 12.5 sen, AT Systemization rising 0.5 sen to 1.5 sen and Tanco up 0.5 sen to 46.5 sen.
