KUALA LUMPUR: Investors on Bursa Malaysia could be feeling optimistic over Malaysian companies signing three memoranda of understanding with their Chinese counterparts worth nearly RM20bil over the weekend.
"Despite the selldown on Wall Street, we believe the traders may focus on the three MOUs signed over the weekend and shift the attention to the waste-to- energy, warehousing and logistic, and the plantation sectors for trading opportunities," said Malacca Securities Research in a note.
This would serve as a bullish turn of events given the recent downside pressure stemming from fears over rising persistent inflation in the US and further interest rate hikes.
While analysts believe the Federal Reserve should keep the status quo for at least the coming Federal Open Market Committee meeting, Wall Street ended on a negative note last Friday given the next FOMC meeting is scheduled for Wednesday.
At the opening bell, Malaysia's benchmark stock index was down 2.07 points to 1,456.96 as investors digested the weekend developments.
There was some pullback in Kuala Lumpur Kepong, down RM1.02 to RM22.30, PETRONAS Chemicals falling 13 sen to RM7.30 and Sime Darby Plantation
shedding 10 sen to RM4.48.
Meanwhile, IOI Corp rose 13 sen to RM3.89 while PETRONAS Gas jumped 24 sen to RM17.20.
Brewers were among the gainers including Heineken adding 30 sen to RM24.08 and Carlsberg rising 14 sen to RM20.16.
Top actives included Classita adding 0.5 sen to 7.5 sen, Sapura Energy rising 0.5 sen to six sen and Tanco unchanged at 54.5 sen.
