KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI rose slightly in the early session Friday on the back of a mild buying momentum, led by selected banks and Petronas-linked stocks.

       At 9.01 am, the FBM KLCI added 2.02 points to 1,503.54.

       In a note today, Malacca Securities said although the local bourse performance was in line with the regional stock markets yesterday, it believes selling pressure could emerge tracking the negative sentiment from Wall Street.

       “Fresh concerns over the Omicron variant still persist as the UK implemented new Covid-19 restrictions to prevent a spike in Covid-19 cases.

       “Nevertheless, we believe window-dressing activities may emerge in the near future on heavyweights. On the commodity markets, the crude oil price fell 1.85%, but hovering above US$74, while the CPO

       price extended losses,” it said.

       Malacca Securities believes the transportation sector may capture traders’ attention on the back of recovering market demand, in line with the increasing tone on Baltic Exchange Dry Index.

       Hong Leong Investment Bank Research remained optimistic that the KLCI may start to form a base at 1,452-1,483 levels prior to an oversold rebound, as the market anchors recovery in anticipation of a possible December window-dressing activity.

       “However, any rebound may be capped near 1545-1560 barriers given the resumption in foreign institutions’ liquidations (net sold RM904mil in the last 10 days), Fed’s hawkish tilt as well as the “market unfriendly” taxes in Budget 2022,” HLIB Research said.

       Among the heavyweights, Maybank rose one sen to RM8.12, Tenaga climbed two sen to RM9.13, Petronas Gas added four sen to RM16.54, MISC gained three sen to RM6.55 and Telekom Malaysia advanced three sen to RM5.32.

       On the broader market, MPI jumped 52 sen to RM48.60, F&N rose 26 sen to RM24.46, Genetec fell 48 sen to RM38.06, Carlsberg lost 20 sen to RM19.74 and Malaysian Genomics Resource Centre fell 17 sen to 65 sen.