KUALA LUMPUR: While the corporate earnings results continue to stream in, there has been an absence of fresh leads for the key index to move out of a consolidation channel.
Apex Securities Research said the FBM KLCI remains "directionless" even as investors remain focused on the barrage of corporate earnings releases.
Overnight, the US stock markets rebounded ahead of the Thanksgiving public holiday, with Amazon outperforming ahead of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.
But the buying mood could be short-lived as the US Michigan's survey of consumer sentiment showed US consumers' inflation expectations rose for a second straight month in November 2023; highlighting that inflation will remain sticky and interest rates are expected to remain higher for longer.
At the open, the FBM KLCI was up 0.79 points to 1,456.68, as the market remained content to trade in a sideways direction.
Some of the laggards on the blue-chip index included Kuala Lumpur Kepong, which fell 16 sen to RM21.26 on the back of it evening earnings announcement yesterday while PETRONAS Chemicals slid two sen to RM7.23 and CIMB dropped two sen to RM5.75.
Meanwhile, following quarterly earnings releases, Sunway rose one sen to RM1.95, Dutch Lady
dopped eight sen to RM22.50, Batu Kawan fell 14 sen to RM20.36.
Top actives included Hong Seng flat at three sen, G3 unchanged at 2.5 sen and SCIB also unmoved at 65.5 sen.
