KUALA LUMPUR: After moving along a horizontal plane for the past seven sessions, the benchmark FBM KLCI is expected to continue its lacklustre movement ahead of the Chinese New Year festivities.
Malaca Securities Research noted that there have been external developments that could affect the investor sentiment, including strong US corporate earnings, which offset the disappointment of the Federal Reserve's signal that it could be keeping interest rate higher for longer.
Additionally, the research firm said concerns over US regional banks returns, coupled with the weaker
sentiment in China may slow down trading activities on the local front ahead of the Chinese New Year long weekend break.
"Meanwhile, sector that traders may focus include the Technology sector on the back of solid close in the US, while consumer, telco, REITs and utilities may perform positively given their defensive characteristics and investors may look into solid
dividend yield as part of their considerations within these sectors," it said in its review.
At the start of trading, the FBM KLCI was up a marginal 0.08 points to 1,513.19.
There was positive sentiment in bank counters including CIMB up five sen to RM6.25, Maybank gaining two sen to RM9.31, Public Bank three sen to RM4.42 and RHB adding three sen to RM5.63.
Genting shares also pushed higher by one sne to RM4.93 while Genting Malaysia gained two sen to RM2.83.
Top actives were TWL unchanged at four sen, Widad flat at 11 sen and Jiankin down 0.5 sne to 17.5 sen.
