KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 15): The FBM KLCI edged up marginally higher Friday morning and was seen trading within a tight band ahead of the release of Malaysia’s third quard economic growth report.

At 9.05am, the FBM KLCI gained 2.42 points to 1,595.97.

The early gainers included Nestle (M) Bhd, Allianz Malaysia Bhd, Hong Leong Industries Bhd, MISC Bhd, Genting Plantations Bhd, Mega First Corp Bhd, Public Bank Bhd, Kawan Food Bhd, SAM Engineering & Equipment Bhd and UWC Bhd.

Bloomberg reported that Asian stocks saw a muted start to trading Friday as traders awaited further updates on a partial U.S.-China trade deal. Treasuries pared overnight gains.

Stocks ticked higher in Japan and Australia and dipped in South Korea. Earlier, the S&P 500 eked out its third gain in a row, but continued to trade under records reached over the last week with technology stocks underperforming. U.S. economic data gave traders few reasons to change bets, with the focus now on Friday’s retail sales figures. The yen gave up some of Thursday’s gains, it said.

CGS-CIMB Retail Research said the FBM KLCI closed 3.67 points lower yesterday, mainly due to the trade war uncertainty as well as the lower-than-forecasted China and Japan's economic data.

It said the KLCI may get off to a muted start this morning as sentiment in the local market could potentially remain tepid ahead of the Malaysia’s 3Q19 GDP announcement later today estimated at 12pm.

“Our CGS-CIMB economist projects Malaysia’s GDP growth to moderate from 4.9% year-on-year (y-o-y) in 2Q19 to 4.6% y-o-y in 3Q19. Resistance: 1,620 & 1,636. Support: 1,590 & 1,577,” it said.