KUALA LUMPUR: Some positive momentum is creeping back into the domestic market following the previous day's late-day rebound, although any gains will be capped by thin trading interest in light of the uncertain trade environment.
Some bargain-hunting in the market's blue chips lifted the FBM KLCI by 2.73 points to 1,510.7 at the start of Thursday trading.
Overnight, Wall Street ended mixed as private sector hiring data was revealed to be at a two-year low, raising concerns over the strength of the US economy.
Tech shares, however, remained on a positive push, backed by calls from US President Donald Trump to the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates.
There also remained optimism there will be a call between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week, paving the way for more progress in trade negotiations between the world's two largest economies.
Rakuten Trade highlighted some pessimism for the FBM KLCI given the spate of downgrades by analysts in view of the prevailing trade uncertainty.
"Nonetheless, we envisage bargain-hunting activities to prevail, hence expect the index to trend within the 1,505-1,515 range today," said the broker in its review.
Notable gainers on Bursa Malaysia included LPI up 10 sen to RM15.08, YTL Power rising nine sen to RM3.38 and Press Metal
adding seven sen to RM4.97.
Of actives, Signature Alliance Group made its debut on the ACE Market with a 5.5 sen increase to 67.5 sen after 39.47 million shares done.
Other actives included NexG gaining 0.5 sen to 38.5 sen and Dnex adding 0.5 sen to 29 sen.
