KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 29 (Bernama): Bursa Malaysia is expected to stage a rebound from Monday (Jan 30) onwards, moving on an upside bias following the resumption of normal trading activities after the Chinese New Year holiday-shortened trading week, dealers said.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said that during the week, the local bourse was stuck in a consolidation mode as sentiments were still cautious from the lack of buying catalysts despite the persistent buying from local institutions and retail investors.
"We noticed that buying activities had shifted to smaller cap stocks, particularly in the construction, transportation and energy sectors.
"While providing cheaper valuations and buying opportunities for investors, the performance of the benchmark index remained lagging compared to its regional peers," he told Bernama.
He said the bourse would also leverage on more investors expected to return to the market after the festive holidays as well as investors continuing to take money out of the United States equities to add to their exposure in international stock markets, betting on European and emerging markets.
Meanwhile, Hong Leong Investment Bank Bhd said that ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee’s decision and the upcoming fourth quarter 2022 results season in February, coupled with a lack of strong local catalysts, the FBM KLCI is likely to drift sideways given the focus on lower liners and ACE counters.
"We believe market bulls will have the upper hand in retesting the 1,518 to 1,528 hurdles as long as the benchmark index remains above the uptrend line and major 50-day and 200-day moving average support levels.
"Conversely, a decisive break below the 1,477 to 1,486 supports would trigger a selloff towards the 1,454 to 1,468 zones," it said in a note.
On a week-to-week basis, the key index eased 2.78 points to 1,497.55 on Friday against 1,500.33 a week earlier.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 50.88 points to 10.893.36, the FBM Emas Shariah Index gained 83.93 points to 11,177.55, and the FBMT 100 Index added 30.13 points to 10,563.91.
Meanwhile, the FBM ACE Index increased 175.15 points to 5,731.23 and the FBM 70 Index advanced 253.19 points to 13,759.84.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 2.41 points to 190.77, the Energy Index bagged 34.95 points to 880.76 and the Technology Index improved 0.89 points to 68.29.
The Plantation Index trimmed 40.19 points to 6,841.23 and the Financial Services Index dropped 64.94 points to 16,470.
Weekly turnover fell to 11.21 billion units worth RM6.12 billion against 14.28 billion units worth RM9.63 billion last week.
The Main Market volume shrank to 7.23 billion shares valued at RM4.95 billion from 8.87 billion shares valued at RM7.42 billion a week ago.
Warrants volume slipped to 951.90 million units worth RM130.73 million from 1.52 billion units worth RM294.96 million previously.
The ACE Market volume declined to 3.02 billion shares worth RM1.04 billion from 3.88 billion shares worth RM1.91 billion last week. - Bernama
