Wall Street proved optimistic overnight as it rose for a second day on expectaions that the Chinese central bank would cut its key lending rate and bank reserve requirement rations later this month.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 2.44 points to 1,533.36. Trading volume was 1.74 billion shares valued at RM1.17bil. Market breadth was nearly even wtih 394 gainers, 325 decliners and 367 counters unchanged.
The top traded counter of the morning was AIRASIA
, which rebounded after investors sold down its shares in the previous session on news of a probe into two senior executives for graft.The low-budget carrier was up five sen to RM1.20, after having fallen 13 sen in Tuesday trading.
Other top traded counters included Impiana up 0.5 sen and XDL dropped 0.5 sen to 15 sen.
Stocks seeing bullish interest included Genetec, which yesterday announced new contract wins worth RM38.5mil year to date. The stock was up 15 sen to RM1.45.
MAHB was also up 17 sen to RM6.97 while KL Kepong climbed 18 sen to RM23.06.
Losing momentum, Petronas Gas fell 26 sen to RM16.20, Public Bank dropped 16 sen to RM18.04 and BAT slid 14 sen to RM11.26.
In the rubber glove sector, the profit-taking continues as Hartalega dropped 12 sen to RM5.67, Top Glove lost eight sen to RM5.62 and Kossan
shed 12 sen to RM16.08.Oil prices recovered some losses on Wednesday as OPEC and other oil producers weighed further production cuts to head off a potential fall in global demand.
US crude rose 53 cents to US$50.13 a barrel while Brent crude rose 63 cents to US$54.59 a barrel.
In currencies, the ringgit continued to strengthen against the Singapore dollar below the 3.0 mark, by 0.5% to 2.9836 on fears over the impact of the coronavirus.
The local currency was 0.3% softer against the greenback at 4.1200 and dropped 0.2% against the pound sterling at 5.3634.
