Bursa Malaysia rally to pause for profit-taking

KUALA LUMPUR: The domestic market is expected to take a breather as investors digest their gains following a rally to fresh two-year highs.

At the open, the FBM KLCI was up 1.31 points to 1,612.42, with some residual momentum carrying equities higher on Friday.

However, analysts are expecting the market to gravitate lower, taking its cue from Wall Street as a Federal Reserve official poured cold water on a rally by saying holding the US central bank policy at current levels will help inflation levels return to the 2% target.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly topped 40,000 points for the first time in its history before retreating to end the session 0.1% lower at 39,869.38.

The S&P 500 was down 0.21% to 5,297.1 while the Nasdaq index shed 0.26% to 16,698.32.

On the domestic front, Malaysia’s 1Q gross domestic product is scheduled for release at midday. The median estimate of a Reuters poll of economists projects growth of 3.9% for the January-March period.

Meanwhile, Apex Securities Research said it is bullish on the consumer sector following strong results from gold merchant Tomei and strong crowds observed withdrawing from their Account 3 pension funds at EPF branches nationwide.

“We remain bullish on companies benefiting from global supply chain diversification amid the intensifying trade war. Meanwhile, we still expect to see volatility in glove counters,” it added in its market outlook.

Companies that released their 1Q results overnight were in focus, with MPI rising 46 sen to RM33.96, Hong Leong Industries gaining 30 sen to RM11.14 and SP Setia adding nine sen to RM1.62.

There was still profit-taking in glove counters; the largest players include Top Glove down three sen to RM1.17, Hartalega shedding six sen to RM3.59, Supermax sliding 2.5 sen to 98.5 sen and Kossan dropping one sen ot RM2.47.

Top actives were SNS Network up one sen to 51.5 sen, Sin-Kung rising one sen to 15.5 sen and Jiankun sliding 0.5 sen to 17.5 sen.