Bursa Malaysia wobbles at the open, stocks continue to hit bottom limits

Bursa Malaysia wobbles at the open, stocks continue to hit bottom limits

KUALA LUMPUR: The recovery on Wall Street overnight could provide the opportunity for investors to search for bargains on Bursa Malaysia, especially as valuations entered oversold levels after the selldown over the last three days.

At the start of Friday trading, the benchmark FBM KLCI was up one point to 1,480.18. At the time of writing, however the index had pulled back to negative-0.65 points to 1,478.53, indicating investor indecision.

In its market review, Apex Securities Research said the index’s trading range remains within the consolidation band despite the extended sell-off.

It said the positive performance on the US markets overnight could give some support to the local bourse although the recovery would be measured, due to the absence of fresh leads.

“For now, investors will be monitoring onto the US consumer sentiment data and home sales,” it said.

Technology stocks will be in focus following the rally on the Nasdaq overnight, led higher by a 3.3% jump in Apple Inc’s share price as it was upgraded by Bank of America.

A positive earnings result from world’s largest chip maker TSMC also helped to shore up the outlook on the semiconductor sector amid the surging demand for high-end chips used in AI applications.

Amid the attention given to tech stocks, Apex also expects gold-related stocks to remain appealing as tensions in the Middle East attract safe-haven flows.

Malacca Securities Research is also projecting spillover benefits on Malaysia’s tech sector, but said small caps and lower liners could take a further beating in the near term given the negative sentiment across the board.

The research firm favours fundamentally solid companies with trading catalysts involving the KL-SG high-speed rail, Johor region and easing requirements of MM2H.

After a day’s reprieve, SCIB was seen slumping once again, hitting limit down after losing 30 sen to 23.5 sen. The stock was the most active with 128.88 million shares done.

Jentayu Sustainables also hit limit down, losing 30 sen to 50 sen.

Widad continued to see heavy selling pressure, shaving 7.5 sen to 11.5 sen, as well as Tanco, falling 22 sen to 29 sen, Silver Ridge losing 28 sen to 56.5 sen and Mercury Securities sliding eight sen to 91 sen.

Blue chips in the red included Hong Leong Bank, down 14 sen to RM18.70, Tenaga down eight sen to RM10.28 and PETRONAS Chemicals falling four sen to RM6.72.