KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips took a breather in early trade on Tuesday, March 9 after the previous day’s rally which pushed the benchmark index to a two-year high, fueled by gains in banks.

Key Asian markets also paused in early trade after the lacklustre overnight close on Wall Street.

At 9.29am, the FBM KLCI was down 4.56 points to 1,319.66. Turnover was 124.23 million shares valued at RM124.73 million. There were 153 gainers, 128 losers and 165 stocks unchanged.

Public Bank gave up part of its gains, shedding 12 sen to RM11.82 while Public Bank foreign shed 10 sen to RM11.86. Maybank eased nine sen to RM7.43 and AMMB six sen to RM4.89.

Genting lost 12 sen to RM6.73 while MAS and Bursa gave up six sen to RM2.13 and RM7.70.

The call warrants of Supermax rose 11.5 sen to 29 sen and it was the most active with 11.9 million units done. MRCB added five sen to RM1.55 as investors expected the EPF to raise the offer price from RM1.50.

Maybank Equity Research said in its daily technical outlook that investors should still adopt a short-term trading approach, as there is a price gap on the chart of the FBM KLCI between March 5 and 8.

“With this, the over-extended market could come down one fine day and fill this price gap of 1,299 and 1,312,” it said.

The key points were that investors take profit at 1,327 and 1,338 while the FBM KLCI may test its major 1,338 resistance. The firm support areas are at 1,308 and 1,324, it said.