KUALA LUMPUR: Subdued trading on the domestic market is expected to continue as investors make their return following the Hari Raya festivities.
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“Just like last week, news flows will be slow in view of the fewer working days in the coming week (as well as for the following week),” said Kenanga Research in its weekly review.
The research firm said the calendar of events for the coming week include the March banking statistics on Friday and corporate earnings announcements by the likes of Nestle Malaysia on Tuesday, Unisem on Wednesday as well as IGB REIT and Capitaland Malaysia Trust on Thursday.
Upon resumption of trading after a four-day weekend, Malaysia’s benchmark index was up 0.16 points to 1,422.27, with an absence of domestic catalysts to guide trading direction.
However, Kenanga noted that the previous week saw more falling counters than rising ones over all four trading days.
“From a charting perspective, the FBM KLCI appears to be losing momentum following last week’s broad market weakness.
“Amidst the ongoing consolidation pattern, the stochastic indicator’s unwinding from an overbought position is signalling that the bellwether – which is also on the edge of breaking below the 25-day SMA – remains vulnerable to renewed selling pressure.
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“With that said, the key market barometer could show a negative bias ahead, possibly pulling back deeper from our first resistance hurdle of 1,440 towards our immediate support threshold of 1,395,” it said.
Fresh out of the break, Press Metal dropped 10 sen to RM5.10, PETRONAS Chemicals slid four sen to RM7.16 an CIMB shed two sen to RM5.17.
CelcomDigi rose four sen to RM4.42 while Sime Darby Plantation rose six sne to RM4.37.
Technology counters were also down as US technology stocks have been falling behind amid the ongoing corporate earnings season.
MPI fell 18 sen to RM28.56, Vitrox slid eight sen to RM7.88 and Dufu slid five sen to RM2.11.
Leading actives on the market included Jade Marvel up 1.5 sen to 29 sen, Vinvest up 0.5 sen to 20.5 sen and KTB rising 2.5 sen to 24 sen.
Top Glove, the fourth most active of the early morning, lost 3.5 sen to 99.5 sen. – The Star