KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 9): The FBM KLCI rose 0.30% in early trade this morning, tracking the advance at most regional markets, lifted including by Top Glove Corp Bhd and Hartalega Holdings Bhd.

At 9.05am, the FBM KLCI rose 5.09 points to 1,677.85.

The gainers included Nestle (M) Bhd, Fraser & Neave Holdings Bhd, PPB Group Bhd, Petronas Dagangan Bhd, Tenaga Nasional Bhd, Genting Plantations Bhd, Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd, Top Glove, Hartalega and Wong Engineering Corp Bhd.

Asian shares inched up on Wednesday, supported by optimism the United States and China can strike a trade deal to avoid an all-out confrontation that will severely disrupt the global economy, according to Reuters.

Japan's Nikkei rose 0.9% while MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.3%, it said.

Kenanga IB Research said Asian stock markets ended mixed yesterday as investors remained cautious over the outcome of the trade talk.

It said back home, the FBM KLCI declined 6.41 points or 0.38% to close at 1,672.76, dragged mainly by both rubber glove counters, Hartalega (-10.43%) and Top Glove (-5.09%), after two foreign houses downgraded the sector in the past two days.

“Overall technical outlook continues to be downside bias as the index failed to close above its 50-day SMAs (simple moving averages) and shorter-term SMAs are still trading below longer-term SMAs.

“We opine that the index may continue to trend down, given the poor signals from key momentum indicators, but may find support at 1,615 (S1) or 1,600 (S2) next.

“Should the benchmark index close above the 1,700 (R1) level, we see a potential move towards the 1,750 (R2) level next,” it said.