FBM KLCI up slightly as consolidation pressures remain

KUALA LUMPUR: Stocks bounced back slightly on Bursa Malaysia after the previous day's sell-off as investors awaited more concrete leads on earnings and interest rates.

According to TA Securities, the market remained in the grips of a consolidation phase amid a lack of domestic catalysts to spur buying activity.

However, it said in its outlook that stocks are expected to recover after private US data pointed to a weakening jobs market, which has bolstered expectations of another rate cut by the Federal Reserve in December.

At 9am, the FBM KLCI was up 2.18 points to 1,633.79 with some buying in bank counters.

Overnight, the Dow Jones ended on another record higher on buying in the US financial sector while the Nasdaq continued to slip as trader grew wary of overstretched tech stocks.

Malacca Securities said the optimism over the end of the US government shutdown could have a spillover effect on the local bourse.

"We believe investors may be pricing in decent progress toward ending the government shutdown, which has fuelled a risk-on appetite across Wall Street despite traders rotating away from the Nasdaq," it said in a note.

"Despite the KLCI index closed in negative territory, the technical indicators are showing a positive signal; the MACD histogram is in the positive territory, while the RSI is above 50. Resistance is anticipated around 1,647–1,651, while support is located at 1,611–1,616."

Among individual stocks, there was positive interest in F&B counters - Nestle rose 90 sen to RM113.80, F&B gained 86 sen to RM31.90 and Dutch Lady added 60 sen to RM27.88.

VSTECS jumped nine sen to RM4.31 after forecasting another year of record profit following the release of its quarterly result.

In financial services, Maybank rose two sen to RM9.96, AmBank gained one sen to RM5.81, CIMB added one sen to RM7.60 and RHB climbed three sen to RM6.92.