Bursa Malaysia likely to continue its recovery momentum this week; expected to be at the 1,440 to 1,460 range

KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama): Bursa Malaysia is expected to have a positive trend this week and continue to recover, thanks to an increase in investors’ optimism and positive outlook on both the local and regional markets, a dealer said.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd senior analyst Kenneth Leong expects the market to stay on the recovery track due to the more stable market sentiment.

He said investors may also keep track of a slew of key economic releases next week such as Malaysia’s industrial production, retail sales, and unemployment rate data.

Attention will also begin to shift towards the upcoming quarterly corporate earnings release, he added.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng opined that the index will likely remain positive next week.

"However, we cannot rule out the likelihood of some profit takings, hence, we anticipate the FBM KLCI to trend higher within the 1,440 to 1,460 range next week with immediate resistance at 1,460, and support at 1,440,” he told Bernama.

The FBM KLCI rebounded on Friday, driven by bargain-hunting activities in more than half of the key index components.

The improvement was also in line with the mostly positive regional markets.

On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the FBM KLCI fell 5.14 points to finish at 1,445.21 versus 1,450.35 a week earlier.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased 204.14 points to 10,652.93, the FBMT 100 Index decreased 30.30 points to 10,310.88, the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 33.65 points to 10,871.55, the FBM 70 Index fell 14.16 points to 13,921.16, and the FBM ACE Index eased 67.62 points at 5,253.71.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index slipped 37.79 points to 16,142.02, the Plantation Index reduced 69.40 points to 7,080.71, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 1.01 points to 166.50, and the Energy Index was 6.34 points weaker at 826.36.

Weekly turnover declined to 15.55 billion units valued at RM9.22 billion from 18.03 billion units valued at RM10.93 billion in the preceding trading week.

The Main Market volume swelled to 10.68 billion shares worth RM7.92 billion compared to 12.63 billion shares worth RM9.54 billion in the previous week.

Warrants turnover narrowed to 1.96 billion units valued at RM321.32 million versus 2.02 billion units valued at RM301.98 million last week.

The ACE Market volume fell to 2.89 billion shares worth RM969.04 million from 3.34 billion shares worth RM1.07 billion previously. - Bernama