KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI was slow out of the blocks as traders digested the previous day's gains, which had extended the overbought valuations of the stocks.
There are expectations of profit-taking on the domestic market as the rally that had begun at the start of August started feeling the reality of gravity.
At 9am, the FBM KLCI was up a marginal 0.45 points to 1,602.9, suggesting investors were holding tight to the 1,600 psychological level.
"Having reversed its earlier decline in May 2025, the benchmark index is trending upward with consistent higher highs and higher lows, underscoring a bullish stance.
"We believe that holding above the 1,600 level could provide the momentum needed to reach 1,650 in the near future," said Rakuten Trade in its erport.
However, the broker said it does not discount the possibility of profit-taking after five consecutive days of gains.
Separately, Malacca Securities said in a note the local bourse is likely to trade on a positive tone despite Wall Street's negative overnight performance.
It said the upcoming rate-cut expectation may buoy technoloy stocks, citing buying support in Unisem, Inari Amertron
and Frontken, which it views as proxies for Apple, TSMC and a potential recovery in China.
Active in early trading, Velesto dropped 0.5 sen to 19.5 sen, NexG shed 0.5 sen to 48.5 sen and Mestron slid 0.5 sen ot 24 sen.
Magma, rebounded 2.5 sen after the extended sell-off on news of its chairman's involvement in the MBI investigation.
Avillion was up 0.5 sen to 7.5 sen after it was reported that the son of Indonesian coal billionaire Low Tuck Kwong of PT Bayan Resources Tbk had acquired a 9% stake in the company.
