KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 22): The FBM KLCI reversed its earlier loses and eked out marginal gains at mid-morning today, lifted by select blue chips.
At 10am, the FBM KLCI was up 0.73 points to 1,707.84.
The top gainers included British American Tobacco (M) Bhd, DanaInfra Nasional Bhd, SAM Engineering & Equipment Bhd, Hong Leong Industries Bhd, Brahim's Holdings Bhd, MISC Bhd, Suria Capital Holdings Bhd, Inari Amertron Bhd, Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd and TIME dotCom Bhd.
The actives included The Media Shoppe Bhd, Instacom Group Bhd, Borneo Oil Bhd, Supermax Corporation Bhd, UEM Sunrise Bhd, JCY International Bhd and China Automobile Parts Holdings Bhd.
The top losers included KESM Industries Bhd, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd, Top Glove Corporation Bhd, Petronas Dagangan Bhd, Ajiya Bhd, SHH Resources Holdings Bhd, YNH Property Holdings Bhd and Keck Seng (Malaysia) Bhd.
Asian shares were on the defensive on Thursday after a sharp fall in mainland Chinese shares rekindled worries about the health of China's economy while investors awaited word from the European Central Bank on its plans regarding additional stimulus, according to Reuters.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.3% in early trade while Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.5%, it said.
Hong Leong IB Research said despite yesterday’s marginal gain, the FBM KLCI is ripe for further profit taking consolidation after it rebounded 204 points or 13.6% from a low of 1,503 on Aug 24 to 1,707 on Oct 21, on the back of negative technical momentum and caution ahead of the tabling of Budget 2016 tomorrow coupled with weaknesses in USD-ringgit and crude oil prices.
“Key supports are 1,686–1,700 whilst key upside hurdles are 1,729–1,740,” it said.
(Note: The Edge Research’s fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)