KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia appears to be on an upward trajectory amid an onset of positive catalysts.
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Following the previous day’s gains, Malacca Securities Research said the market is being driven higher by a stable political environment and uninterrupted foreign funds inflow over seven straight sessions.
In addition, the EPF announced yesterday that its active members have hit an all-time high of 8.5 million, signaling a robust employment market.
As for the lower liners, the research firm said they are in a sweet spot as the quarterly reporting seasons shifts into high gear.
“Moving forward, investors will be keeping a close tab on the US FOMC minutes releases that may provide additional clues over the interest rate direction in the world largest economy,” it said in its market review.
A positive performance on the domestic market however would be at odds with the negative sentiment seen on Wall Street overnight as investors dumped equities following China’s lending rate cut.
All three major Wall Street indices were down over 1% amid growing evidence the world’s second largest economy was slowing.
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At the start of Wednesday trading, the benchmark FBM KLCI was down 1.25 points to 1,459.03 amid some early signs of profit-taking following the previous day’s performance.
The leading laggards were CIMB down four sen to RM5.64, CelcomDigi falling two sen to RM4.39, Kuala Lumpur Kepong sliding four sen to RM22.72 and Sime Darby Plantation shedding four sen to RM4.36.
IHH however was up five sen to RM6.05 and PETRONAS Gas added four sen to RM17.10.
Of actives, Classita was unchanged at 7.5 sen, Tanco down 0.5 sen to 54.5 sen and Advance Synergy up 0.5 sen to 14.5 sen.
– The Star