KUALA LUMPUR:  Investors stayed cautious in early trade on Friday, March 12 after the retracement the previous day despite the firmer Wall Street close, with mild profit taking seen in CIMB and AMMB.

At 9.20am, the FBM KLCI fell 1.25 points to 1,320.18. Turnover was 54.72 million shares valued at RM46.8 million. There were 130 gainers, 71 losers and 110 stocks unchanged.

RHB Research Institute said Thursday’s  sharp negative reversal on the FBM KLCI calls for a temporary consolidation ahead.

"Dampened further by the T+4 forced-selling activities from Monday’s 1.16 billion shares high volume, the index could see follow-through retracement towards a lower technical gap near the 1,300.74 - 1,312.18 region soon," it said.

Apart from that, with the March school holiday just around the corner, coupled with the upcoming US FOMC meeting next Tuesday, investors are likely to take a cautious stance for the near term, in our view.

“Nevertheless, we stay bullish on the FBM KLCI’s medium-term outlook on expectation that the 1,300 psychological level will cap immediate bearish momentum.

“Following yesterday’s sharp reversal, the 1,334.34 high will become the immediate resistance for the index, followed by the upper technical gap near 1,354.79. Medium-term target resistance remains at 1,390,” it said.

At Bursa Malaysia, TAHPS plunged 87 sen to RM2.45 with 2,100 shares done while SYF lost 12.5 sen to 14 sen in thin trade also.

Among banks, CIMB fell six sen to RM13.98 and AMMB shed six sen also to RM4.90 as investors expected the market to consolidate in the short-term.

Carlsberg fell nine sen to RM4.282 while IJM Plantations gave up four sen to RM2.54.

Top Glove, which is scheduled to announce a strong set of earnings next week, rose 22 sen to RM12.36.

Keck Seng continued to advance, rising another six sen to RM5.09 on hopes of a dividend payout.

Ireka rose five sen to 81 sen after InsiderAsia said Ireka’s recent results for 3Q FY March 2010 were within its expectations. It expects to see stable earnings over the next two years, underpinned by a large RM496 million construction orderbook, especially relative to its small market capitalisation of RM89 million.

Axiata rose five sen to RM3.90 on rising volume with 367,300 shares done.

RHB Research is maintaining its Outperform on Axiata at RM3.85 with a fair value of RM4.05 as it continues to like Axiata for its strong earnings growth and exposure to the recovery in emerging markets where mobile penetration rates remain low.