Bursa stays uninspired on final day of results season

KUALA LUMPUR: The sluggish sentiment on Malaysia's stock market continued on Friday, with the earnings announcements of the past week doing little to halt the corrective pressure.

While the FBM KLCI gained 2.24 points to 1,521.22 at the start of the day's trading, the weak momentum indicates the index could yet close in the red, ending the week on a five-day losing streak.

There was some buying interest on Wall Street overnight, bolstered by forecast-beating earnings from the likes of Nvidia, although the ongoing confusion over the legal validity of US President Donald Trump's trade tariffs weighed on sentiment.

The US rally has done little to spur the interest of Malaysian investors given the absence of fresh domestic leads, especially as the corporate earnings season comes to an end this week with little fanfare.

According to Rakuten Trade, the recent sell-down on the local market could be attributed to the flight of funds back to the Hong Kong market, which has been on a tear on hopes of easing trade tension.

"For today, we expect bargain hunting activities to emerge if

and when the index ease closer to the 1,500 mark thus anticipate it to trend between the 1,510-1,525 range," said the broker in a note.

Companies that announced their earnings in after-trading hours yesterday include KPJ down 18 sen to RM2.78, MPI falling 16 sen to RM19.70 and Genting dropping 11 sen to RM3.02.

Egg and poultry producer Leong Hup rose 0.5 sen to 61.5 sen while sector rival QL Resources dropped two sen to RM4.52.

On the actives list, Velesto was unchanged at 18.5 sen, Nationgate jumped six sen to RM1.50 and Eco-shop rose five sen to RM1.24.