KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI wobbled in early Wednesday trade despite a sharp decline on Wall Street as traders fretted about disruptions to global crude supply and inflation risks.
The Malaysian stock market had kicked off the week with frenzied selling, much like in other world markets, in reaction to news that the US and Isreal had commenced their attack on Iran.
However, yesterday's rebound signalled resilience on the domestic stock market, bucking the regional trend as fierce selling continued unabated in Asian markets.
At 9.08am, the FBM KLCI was down 3.14 points to 1,708.61. The broader domestic market also took a knee as 484 stocks slipped into the red, against 154 gainers.
Comparatively, Japan's stock exchange remained under more intense selling pressure, with the Nikkei benchmark falling 2.2% to 55,055.
Apex Securities suggested in its report that Bursa Malaysia was taking a defensive stance due to the geopolitical conflict and trade tensions, but would recover once the uncertainty subsided.
"Markets tend to fear uncertainty more than the conflict itself, and such pullbacks may offer selective entry opportunities for longer-term investors," it said.
The research firm said the recent decline is a healthy correction rather than the start of a broader downtrend.
In its technical reading, it said the index has yet to break below its prevailing uptrend line, suggesting that the broader upward structure remains intact.
"As long as the FBM KLCI continues to hold above this uptrend line, we maintain our constructive bias and assume the uptrend remains in force.
"Amore cautious outlook would only be warranted if sufficient reversal signals emerge — most notably a decisive break below the established uptrend support."
Among individual stocks, energy counters were the most active. Bumi Armada
topped the list, rising 0.5 sen to 38.5 sen on 32.94 million shares done. Velesto was flat at 33 sen while Hengyuan Refining jumped 16 sen to RM1.51.
Perdana Petroleum rose 0.5 sen to 18 sen, Alam Maritim gained three sen to RM28 sen and Hibiscus Petroleum climbed six sne to RM2.03.
