KUALA LUMPUR: Some buying of Tenaga Nasional and Petronas-linked stocks help support the cautious FBM KLCI early Monday while key Asian markets traded cautiously.

At 9.51am, the KLCI was up 1.92 points or 0.12% to 1,640.55. Turnover was 381.02 million shares valued at RM164.54mil. There were 198 gainers, 216 losers and 241 counters unchanged.

Reuters reported Asian shares got off to a shaky start as investors were cautious ahead of a closely-watched Federal Reserve meeting, while political tensions in the Middle East and Hong Kong kept risk-appetite in check.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan opened slightly lower and was last little changed, while Japan's Nikkei average stood flat.

On the technical outlook for the KLCI, Kenanga Research said the primary downtrend remains intact as the share remains below its 100-day SMA. 

“We observed that the index is in the midst of testing this 100-day SMA. Should the index convincingly break above its 100-day SMA, we opine that the outlook could turn bullish. From here, resistances can be found at 1,670 (R1) and 1,705 (R2). Conversely, supports are identified at 1,610 (S1) and 1,585 (S2),” it said.

Tenaga rose 20 sen to RM12.38 and BIMB nine sen to RM4.69. Petronas Dagangan added 20 sen to RM25.80 and Petronas Gas 16 sen to RM17.76 while Yinson rose eight sen to RM5.28.

Greatec continue to trek higher after its strong debut on the ACE Market last week, gaining three sen to 84 sen. It was the second most active counter with 29.88 million shares done.

Apex Healthcare lost 20 sen to RM8.50, HL Bank 16 sen to RM18,64, Hume Industries 10 sen to RM1.34 and Lafarge nine sen to RM3.99.