KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia started the day on a positive note, rising in early trade as broad optimism across the market helped drive gains.
The FBM KLCI rose 5.43 points, or 0.33% to 1,626.67 at 9.04 am. The index opened up 4.39 points at 1,625.63 earlier.
Carlsberg jumped 38 sen to RM19.90, United Plantations rose 30 sen to RM28.40, Alliance Bank added 17 sen to RM4.67 and Kuala Lumpur Kepong gained 14 sen to RM22.14.
Newly listed road infrastructure construction company Azam Jaya surged 33 sen, or 42.31%, to RM1.12 with 30.5 million shares traded.
Among the losers, Malaysian Pacific Industries
fell 30 sen to RM26.20, PIE lost 24 sen to RM5.16, Inari declined seven sen to RM3.06 and LPI Capital eased six sen to RM13.42.
Apex Securities expects the FBM KLCI to maintain its upward trend this week, driven by rate cuts, China’s commitment to supportive monetary policy for economic recovery, and strong backing from the recent Republican election win.
“We expect the FBM KLCI to float above the 1,600 psychological level over time. Still, the weakness in trading liquidity may cap any potential gains over the lower liners.
“We continue to favour the plantation sector that is riding onto the uninterrupted rally in CPO prices which steadied above RM5,000 per tonne. Meanwhile, the technology sector may advance in tandem with the gains in Nasdaq last Friday,” Apex said.
Meanwhile, Inter-Pacific Research said domestic market conditions remain insipid, which could cause the key index to drift further as market players overlook the positivity and record close on Wall Street following the U.S. Presidential election and the Fed's interest rate cut.
The research house noted that foreign funds have recently been reducing their holdings in Bursa Malaysia stocks in favour of U.S. and regional equities, a trend unlikely to reverse soon, which could leave FBM KLCI stocks lacking direction for an extended period.
“This also means that the 1,620 level could be breached again due to the low market interest with the next supports are pegged at 1,616-1,618 levels, followed by the 1,607 level.
“On the flip side, the resistances are set at 1,627 points and 1,634 points respectively,” it added.
“The broader market shares are also finding it difficult to move out the first gear and conditions are likely to remain dour due to low buying interest on these stocks. Consequently, their insipid trend is likely to persist as with the downside bias.”
