KUALA LUMPUR: A lacklustre opening on Bursa Malaysia reflected the growing unease in global markets as oil prices surged overnight while the US tech sector slumped amid concerns over excessive spending.
The FBM KLCI was up 3.01 points to 1,714.38 at the opening bell amid a weak rebound as traders hesitated to retrace the losses accumulated over the previous three trading days.
There are fresh inflation pressures to contend with as Brent crude futures for September delivery rose past the US$95 a barrel mark overnight amid growing war tensions in the Middle East, raising the specter of a more hawkish Federal Reserve at next week's interest rate meeting.
Meanwhile, Google's holding company Alphabet slid in after-hours trading despite strong results as its higher capex guidance unsettled investors.
"Markets are punishing capex expansion rather than rewarding growth, keeping the AI spending debate open into the remaining megacap reports and next week's Fed meeting," said Apex Securities in a note.
The research firm said investors should be patient on entering the market, favouring oil-linked an ddomestically anchored names while the AI capex issue and oil supply situation play out.
The research firm said the FBM KLCI remains in a constructive consolidation phase after rebounding from the 1,660–1,670 zone. It is now trading above its 20-, 120- and 200-day moving averages, which supports the broader uptrend.
"Near term, the index faces resistance around 1,720–1,740, where the descending trendline and recent swing highs converge; a decisive breakout there would likely open the way back toward 1,760–1,770.
"On the downside, 1,700-1,680 remain the key support to watch, followed by 1,625 if the rebound loses momentum."
Among the blue chips, PETRONAS Chemicals ro se 10 sen to RM4.82 following the jump in oil prices.
PETRONAS Dagangan gained 18 sen to RM19.52 and PPB rose seven sen to RM9.47.
Most actively traded stocks were Aimax unchanged at 1.5 sen, Zetrix AI dropping 1.5 sen to 70 sen and VS Industry shedding 0.5 sne to 25.5 sen.
