KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI early rebound lost steam headed into midday as the market sentiment remained weak amid the elevated number of Covid-19 infections.
At 12.30pm, the key index ended for lunch 1.74 points higher at 1,579.76 after jumping as much as 8.51 points earlier in the day.
Financial heavyweights were lifted as a raft of earnings is expected to come in over the course of today and tomorrow.
Maybank added three sen to RM8.36, Hong Leong Bank rose four sen to RM17.68, Public Bank added two sen to RM4.19 and CIMB gained one sen to RM4.22.
Petronas Chemicals, whose results are also due out today, climbed six sen to RM8.06.
Meanwhile, glove counter Hartalega
skidded 17 sen to RM9.06 amid the ongoing decline in the sector while Top Glove was unchanged at RM5.20 and Supermax lost seven sen to RM4.38.
On the broader market, consumer stocks were in focus with F&N rising RM1.06 to RM26.84, Carlsberg gaining 74 sen to RM22.34 and Nestle adding 60 sen to RM135.90.
Top actives were Priva up eight sen to 34 sen, Picorp gaining four sen to 23 sen and DGB rising one sen to seven sen.
Meanwhile, Asian markets were on the backfoot amid concerns that central banks were unwinding stimulus measures to help prop up the economy.
Japan’s Nikkei was down 0.5% while South Korea’s Kospi dropped 0.3%.
China’s main market however gained 0.2% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slid 0.3%.
Australia’s ASX200 gained 0.3%.
