Stocks remain range-bound over heightened caution

KUALA LUMPUR: The domestic market is staying range-bound amid concerns over state of the global economy and the developing banking crisis.

At the start of trading, the FBM KLCI was down 1.61 points to 1,407.68, with investors tracking the negative overnight performance on Wall Street as bond yields pushed higher.

"Sentiment seems not to be recovering as smoothly in the US and we expect profit taking activities on the big caps may emerge on the local front.

"Meanwhile, investors are shifting their focus on the economic outlook under the elevated interest rate environment," said Malacca Securities Research in a note.

Overnight, Wall Street was mildly lower as the Dow Jones fell 0.1% as technology shares fell on an advance in treasury yields.

On Bursa Malaysia's blue-chip index, Press Metal rose 11 sen to RM4.94, extending its lead after strong gains in the previous session.

Bank stocks were also on the rise, led by Maybank up three sen to RM8.54 and CIMB gaining four sen to RM5.25.

On the broader market, Ajinomoto rose 30 sen to RM15.86, Hextar Technologies climbed 22 sen to RM24.50 and Dutch Lady jumped 18 sen to RM26.48.

Apollo Food gained 17 sen to RM4.07 after its net profit more than doubled in its third financial quarter.

Of actives, Hong Seng dropped 0.5 sen to 11 sen, Dataprep slipped 0.5 sen to 18.5 sen and CFM rose one sen to 19.5 sen.