KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia eked out mild gains early Tuesday on some nibbling of oversold counters like F&N after the broad selling the previous day when foreign funds continued to reduce their shareholdings.
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At 9.16am, the FBM KLCI was up just 1.11 points or 0.07% to 1,584.57. Turnover was 561.99 million shares valued at RM246.24mil. There were 327 gainers, 172 losers and 331 counters unchanged.
Asian stocks opened firmer as investors weighed a pick-up in virus cases in the region against the pace of economic growth as economies reopen. US futures rose, Bloomberg reported.
Benchmarks climbed in Japan, Australia and South Korea. Nasdaq 100 futures outperformed. Earlier, technology and communication services stocks led the benchmark S&P 500 lower, while energy shares rose.
According to Reuters, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 54.34 points, or 0.16%, to 34,327.79, the S&P 500 lost 10.56 points, or 0.25%, to 4,163.29 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 50.93 points, or 0.38%, to 13,379.05.
Oil prices climbed. Brent crude rose 1.1% to settle at $69.46 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained 1.4% to settle at $66.27.
Spot gold jumped 1.3% to $1,866.84 per ounce, after hitting its highest since Feb 1 at $1,868.26.
At Bursa, local funds were net buyers on Monday at RM70.1mil and local retailers RM4.2mil but foreign funds remained net sellers RM74.3mil.
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On the outlook, Rakuten Trade said the local market undertone was weak as there are no buying commitments from traders.
“As such, we expect consolidation to continue with the index to hover between 1,580 and 1,590 today, ” it said.
F&N rebounded 66 sen to RM27.66, Petronas Dagangan added 36 sen to RM19.50 while Y&G and Toyo Ventures added 30 sen each to RM1.16 and RM2.40.
Trans Ocean gained 19 sen to RM5.55 and Anjoo 13 sen to RM2.66.
As for tech stocks, UWC edged up 13 sen to RM5.13 and Greatec 11 sen to RM5.08 but MPI shed 10 sen to RM35.70.
Can-One lost 12 sen to RM2.88, Widetec nine sen to RM2.35, Petronas Gas eight sen lower at RM15.90 and Bursa seven sen to RM8.19.-The Star