Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) reversed earlier losses and ended in positive territory due to the late buying of commodity-related stocks.
He said that the key regional indices pared losses and closed mixed on the back of China’s positive third-quarter gross domestic product (Q3 GDP), which surpassed expectations of 4.4% but slowed from 6.3% in the preceding quarter.
“Back home, we anticipate market sentiment to remain jittery given the ongoing geopolitical conflict in the West Asia region, which has created a wait-and-see sentiment, subsequently impacting market performance negatively.
“Taking the current situation into account, we project the benchmark index to continue its sideways trajectory, and anticipate the FBM KLCI to trend within the 1,435 to 1,450 range for the rest of the week with immediate resistance at 1,460 and support at 1,430,” he told Bernama.
Meanwhile, the regional bourses were mixed after China registered better-than-expected third-quarter gross domestic product at 4.9%, while the Middle East conflict continues to weigh on sentiment, dealers said.
Singapore’s Straits Times Index fell 1.11% to 3,136.62, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index trimmed 0.23% to 17,732.52 and China’s SSE Composite slipped 0.80% to 3,058.71.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 edged up 0.01% to 32,042.25 and South Korea’s Kospi added 0.1% to 2,462.6.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI rose 2.41 points to end at an intraday high of 1,446.54 from yesterday’s closing of 1,444.13.
However, the broader market was negative with decliners trumping gainers 616 to 265, while 438 counters were unchanged, 1,031 untraded and 10 suspended.
The index, which opened 0.9 of-a-point easier at 1,443.23, hit a low of 1,441.06 in the mid-morning session before gaining momentum to move upwards in the late session.
Turnover increased to 3.41 billion units worth RM2.71 billion from 2.67 billion units worth RM1.92 billion yesterday.
On the local bourse, heavyweights Maybank slipped 5 sen to RM8.95, Public Bank slid 1 sen to RM4.17 and CIMB dipped 4 sen to RM5.94.
Petronas Chemicals rose 15 sen to RM7.65 while Tenaga Nasional gained 4 sen to RM10.02.
Of the actives, KNM eased 1 sen to 10 sen, Minox and Ekovest fell 3.5 sen each to 33.5 sen and 47.5 sen respectively, UEM Sunrise slid 4 sen to 75 sen, but Eversendai warrant added 5 sen to 10.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index declined 19.13 points to 10,673.75, the FBMT 100 Index shed 11.02 points to 10,346.56, the FBM 70 Index dropped 138.53 points to 14,079.15, and the FBM ACE Index lost 71.74 points to 5,081.4.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index gained 18.51 points to 10,948.07.
Sector-wise, the plantation index rose 39.14 points to 6,928.38, the industrial products and services index edged up 0.87 of-a-point to 176.54, the financial services index fell 78.78 points to 16,165.84, and the energy index slipped by 3.48 points to 878.69.
The Main Market volume increased to 2.34 billion units worth RM2.44 billion from 1.4 billion units worth RM1.58 billion yesterday.
Warrants turnover expanded to 337.33 million units valued at RM42.81 million against 305.12 million units valued at RM36 million yesterday.
The ACE Market volume tumbled to 716.3 million shares worth RM230.41 million from 972.12 million shares worth RM304.17 million previously.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 290.89 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (446.88 million); construction (325.44 million); technology (202.13 million); SPAC (nil); financial services (156.88 million); property (327.62 million); plantation (46.75 million); REITs (24.77 million), closed/fund (178,400); energy (207.47 million); healthcare (61.83 million); telecommunications and media (77.14 million); transportation and logistics (64.97 million); and utilities (109.43 million).