KUALA LUMPUR: Following a dismal week that saw Bursa Malaysia’s key index fall to a fresh eight-month low, the market remains on shaky ground as external headwinds continue to blow.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 1.88 points to 1,385.24. There were 441 decliners compared to 270 gainers.
Trading volume was 1.66 billion shares valued at RM893.65mil.
While worries over US debt ceiling negotiations have receded as the House of Representatives passed a bill earlier today to send the legislation to the Senate, there remains concern over the global economic outlook and potential rate hikes by the Federal Reserve at its upcoming June policy meeting.
According to Malacca Securities Research, the labour market tightness and stubbornly high recent inflation data may continue to sap trading interest in the equities market.
“The FBM KLCI drifted lower, breaching below its immediate support at 1,390,” it said following the previous session’s decline.
“Technical indicator remained negative as the MACD indicators extended a negative bar, while the RSI hovered below 50.
“Next support is monitored at 1,370, while the resistance is set along 1,440-1,460,” it added.
On the blue-chip index, CelcomDigi fell seven sen to RM4.40, PPB dropped 54 sen to RM15.72 and Tenaga Nasional slid 11 sen to RM9.40.
CIMB rose four sen to RM4.86 while Hong Leong bank gained four sen to RM19.40 following results announcements yesterday, while Public Bank rose three sen to RM3.84 and Maybank dipped one sen to RM8.64.
Synergy House, making its debut on the ACE Market of Bursa Malaysia, was down 6.5 sen to 36.5 sen on the back of 69.16 million shares done.
It lost poll position as the day’s most actively traded stock to Borneo Oil, which was down 0.5 sen to 1.5 sen on the back of 244.21 million shares traded.
– The Star