KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLC dawdled at the start of trading as Wall Street equities backed off record highs ahead of a key jobs report.
At 9am, the main index eked a marginal 0.21 points higher at 1,615.85, reflecting investors' uncertainty over trading direction.
Rakuten Trade said in its market outlook that it expects the buying streak to continue and remains hopeful that foreign selling will not derail the current uptrend.
"Crucially the benchmark index is still stuck within the consolidation phase and needs to break the 1,630 mark, before the local bourse improves to higher levels," it said.
For today, the research firm expects the FBM KLCI to trend within the 1,610-1,620 range.
On the blue-chip index, Genting-related stocks started bouncing back from oversold positions after investors sold down the shares ahead of their impending exclusion from the FBM KLCI.
Genting jumped 13 sen to RM3.760 while Genting Malaysia rose five sen to RM2.17.
PETRONAS Chemicals rose seven sen to RM4.90 while YTL Power added five sen to RM3.82 and YTL Corp gained six sen to RM2.26.
In the plantations sector, United Plantations remained on a rally, gaining 20 sen to RM31.70, while TSH Resources gained two sen to RM1.22 and Hap Seng Plantation added two sen to RM2.22.
Of leading actives, Zentech fell 0.5 sen to five sen, Supermax rose 3.5 sen to RM1.02 and Velesto
gained 0.5 sen to 16 sen.
