Bursa Malaysia expected to see trading slowdown during Merdeka week

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 29 (Bernama): Trading activity on Bursa is expected to slow down during the upcoming holiday-shortened week, with markets closed on Tuesday (Aug 31) for the National Day celebration.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim told Bernama that some traders may take the opportunity to go on leave on Monday to get a long weekend.

"In addition, with the list of the Cabinet ministers already made known to the public, there will not be any major domestic event anticipated next week by investors.

"Therefore, we expect the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) to trade in the range of 1,575 to 1,595 points next week,” he said.

On Friday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced the list of his results-oriented Cabinet line-up, which he described as a management team that would work with the people.

Among them is Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz, who has been reappointed as the Finance Minister, while Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali remains as the Senior Minister and International Trade and Industry Minister and Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed stays the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Economy).

Meanwhile, on the global scene, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is expected to be holding a meeting on Sept 1, 2021.

"If the 20th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting is held, investors will get a sense of the oil producing countries' reaction towards US President Joe Biden's remarks on raising oil production faster in order to stabilise gasoline prices,” he explained.

Adam said a slew of economic data and production activity data would also be released next week.

Several countries, which include Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines, will be releasing their manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) data.

Thailand, Japan and South Korea will be also releasing industrial production data next week.

"Such data is important to gauge the level of production activities in light of the supply chain bottlenecks,” he added.

At home, Bursa Malaysia's strength continued throughout the week, with the barometer index climbing nearly to a three-month high on Friday.

Calmer political scene, firmer commodity prices, and solid earnings performance contributed to the uptick in the domestic equity market.

On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the benchmark index rose 72.13 points to end the week at 1,590.16 from 1,518.03 previously.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 452.57 points stronger at 11,560.53, the FBMT 100 Index climbed 452.74 points to 11,273.38, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index strengthened 461.85 points to 12,679.36.

The FBM ACE gained 68.51 points to 7,214.87 and the FBM 70 widened 371.49 points to 14,970.34.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index surged 357.30 points to 6,773.68, the Financial Services Index soared 644.03 points to 15,486.90, and the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 8.30 points to 196.56.

The Healthcare Index added 24.03 points to 2,785.09, the Energy Index advanced 53.62 points to 771.64, and the Technology Index went up 1.43 points to 90.60.

Weekly turnover increased to 21.78 billion units valued at RM14.41 billion from 20.16 billion units valued at RM10.82 billion in the previous week.

The Main Market volume, however narrowed to 10.72 billion shares worth RM12.56 billion from last week’s 13.46 billion shares worth RM9.17 billion.

Warrants volume was higher at 1.76 billion units valued at RM250.17 million against 1.38 billion units valued at RM212.08 million previously.

The ACE Market volume climbed to 6.68 billion shares worth RM1.59 billion from 4.99 billion shares worth RM1.42 billion last week. - Bernama