KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 19): It was a lacklustre day at Bursa Malaysia as sentiment at the local market stayed cautious, despite modest rise at regional bourses.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 2.89 points to 1,625.53.

Losers overtook gainers by 366 to 361, while 337 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 1.08 billion shares, valued at RM662.21 million.

The top gainers included British American Tobacco (M) Bhd, Lay Hong Bhd, Mercury Industries Bhd, Petron Malaysia Refining & Marketing Bhd, Scientex Bhd, Apollo Food Holdings Bhd, and SAM Engineering & Equipment Bhd.

The actives included Sanichi Technology Bhd, APFT Bhd, Eka Noodles Bhd, Tiger Synergy Bhd, Nexgram Holdings Bhd, JAG Bhd and Comintel Corporation Bhd.

The decliners included Enra Group Bhd, Petronas Gas Bhd, Aeon Credit Services (M) Bhd, Bintulu Port Holdings Bhd and Tasek Corporation Bhd.

Asian stocks rose modestly and crude oil prices nudged up on Tuesday, after Chinese GDP figures were mostly in line with expectations, according to Reuters.

China's economy grew 6.8% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, the data showed, the slowest growth since 2009. Industrial output in December rose 5.9% from a year earlier, compared with forecasts for a 6.0% increase, it said.

AffinHwang Capital Research said bearish sentiments from China’s sell-offs, yuan devaluation and tension in the middle east, may drag our local market lower.

“Weak ringgit, sliding oil price and continuous strengths of US dollar, pose negative catalysts for [the] local market.

“The FBM KLCI continues to consolidate, mainly due to external factors,” 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.)