KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI retraced most of its losses from the morning session as investors attempted to shrug off the weakness plaguing regional markets to focus its attention on the final leg of the corporate results period.
Following the tabling of the revised Budget 2023, analysts agree that the announcement is will have little positive impact on the market, although certain sectors could benefit from upsides.
"Briefly, the budget announcement is broadly seen as neutral to the stock market with positive implications on selected sectors," said Kenanga Research in its weekly review.
It said the sectors included automotive, construction, consumer, and tourism-related services on the back of various incentives granted to boost tourist arrivals.
CGS-CIMB Research meanwhile said the market's reaction will be neutral to negative.
The research house said in a note that the high-income earners would be impacted by higher income taxes, higher taxes on luxury goods and capital gains tax (CGT) on disposal of non-listed shares.
However, this would be offset by the discontinuation of one-off prosperity tax, no plans to implement the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and no changes to the sin tax.
At 12.30pm, the bellwether index was down 3.14 points to 1,453.66, bouncing up from a morning low of 1,447.55.
There was a mixed performance in bank stocks, which are due to release their results today and tomorrow.
CIMB rose seven sen to RM5.54 and Hong Leong Bank rallied 16 sen to RM20.42.
Meanwhile, Maybank, whose results are scheduled for midday, dipped one sen ot RM8.73 while Public Bank remained unchanged at RM4.13.
Press Metal
gave up 12 sen to RM5.08 on the back of its result announcement yesterday while IHH slid 11 sen to RM5.81.
Some bullish stocks included Heineken up 42 sen to RM27.90, United Plantation rising 26 sen to RM16.02 and Padini gaining 23 sne to RM3.93.
Top actives were Borneo Oil flat at two sen, Zentech up 0.5 sen to three sen and MYEG down two sen to 71.5 sen.
Meanwhile, regional markets remained subdued on the back of the negative sentiment on the US inflation rate and expected interest rate hikes.
Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.2% to 27,404, South Korea's Kospi slid 1.2% to 2,394 and China's composite index fell 0.1% to 3,263.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.75% to 19,860 while Australia's ASX200 shed 1.3% to 7,211.
