KUALA LUMPUR (April 17): The FBM KLCI edged up marginally in early trade today, in line with most regional markets.

At 9am, the FBM KLCI was up 0.15 points to 1,848.09.

The early gainers included British American Tobacco (M) Bhd, Tenaga Nasional Bhd, Lafarge Malaysia Bhd, DiGi.Com Bhd, Malaysian Pacific Industries Bhd, Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd and IFCA MSC Bhd.

Asian shares edged up in early trade on Friday, on track to score weekly gains and shrugging off a languid performance on Wall Street after another set of lacklustre U.S. economic data, according to Reuters.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added about 0.2 percent in early trade, extending a seven-year high touched in the previous session and on track for weekly gains over 1 percent, it said.

JF Apex Securities Research in a market preview today said that US stocks closed marginally lower yesterday as higher oil prices failed to lift the market sentiment with investor focus is now on corporate earnings.

It said the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 6.84 points, or 0.04 percent, at 18,105.77, whilst the S&P 500 inched down 1.64 points, or 0.08 percent, at 2,104.99, with utilities the greatest of seven laggards and consumer sectors leading.

Similarly, it said the European markets closed lower after Greece credit rating was downgraded to "CCC+" from "B-" by S&P with its deteriorating economic situation.

“Back to local bourse, the FBM KLCI ended higher, up 7.81 points to 1847.94 following a last minute surge.

“We expect some mild profit taking happening today as affected by dismal performance of overseas markets.

“However, the local benchmark index is expected to hover above its key support level of 1830 points,” it said.