KUALA LUMPUR: There was a mild pullback on the domestic market as investors took the softer performance on Wall Street overnight as an opportunity to cash in on the recent rally.
The benchmark FBM KLCI fell back 1.29 points to 1,672.95 at Thursday's open as market heavyweights, including banks, that were the target of investor buying in the previous session pulled back on profit-taking.
By 9.15am, the index had dropped 8.19 points to 1,667.05.
Maybank, which led the rally in the previous session, fell six sen to RM10.80, CIMB dropped 12 sen to RM8.26 while RHB rose four sen to RM6.20.
QL Resources gave up eight sen to RM6.42, YTL Power dropped six sen to RM3.69 and Genting shed four sen to RM4.40.
Despite the retreat, howver, Apex Securities Research expects the decline to be capped.
"While renewed volatility on Wall Street may also dampen sentiment, we foresee downside risk to remain well cushioned by the solid quarterly financial performance delivered by banking giants along with the improved foreign fund inflow as of late," it said in its outlook.
The research firm noted the lower liners may continue to see volatility amid the ongoing corporate earnings releases this week.
By sector, it said the technology stocks may mirror the weakness on the Nasdaq overnight.
Apex continued to favour banking stock amid the recent batch of solid corporate earnings, as well as the plantations sector that has been riding on better production and export data in recent months.
Of actives, Key Alliance was flat at 0.5 sen, Luster droppd 0.5 sen to seven sen and Cape EMS shed 1.5 sen to 33.5 sen.
