KUALA LUMPUR: It could be a slow week on the Malaysian market following the end to the corporate earnings period in November as investors await fresh catalysts and trading opportunities.
Kenanga Research noted it could be a fairly quiet week after a hive of activities in November and no key macro data scheduled for release this week.
"On the local political scene, following the naming of a new cabinet team, the focus next will be on the setting of a date to table Budget 2023 in the parliament," said the research firm in its weekly technical review.
Over the coming period, Kenanga said investors could nibble at the second and third liners for trading opportunities as they digest the recent headline gains.
The US dollar could also be in focus following its recent depreciation against a basket of 10 major global currencies.
"Tracking the USD weakness, the Ringgit has strengthened vis-à-vis the USD (+7.6%), Yuan (+5.9%) and SGD (+3.7%) since early November.
"An extended reversal of the USD (after rising since end-May last year) may benefit emerging markets (like Malaysia) and currencies (like the Ringgit) as funds move out from the US in search of better investment returns going forward," it added.
In a separate report, Malacca Securities Research said it expects the market to stabilise and trade on certain politically linked stocks with the set-up of the new Cabinet.
"Meanwhile, we expect the O&G sector to outperform the broader market as the sector’s earnings have been growing
positively over the past few quarters.
"Also, we like the technology sector with the improving sentiment from Wall Street," it added.
At 9.05am, the FBM KLCI was 3.29 points lower at 1,478.51. However, the number of positive counters on Bursa Malaysia continued to exceed negative ones, as has been over the last trading week, with 210 gainers compared with 116 decliners.
Trading volume on the market was 310.36 million shares valued at RM72.91mil.
The profit-taking dragged on bank counters. CIMB fell six sen to RM5.58, Maybank dropped two sen to RM8.56 and Hong Leong Bank slid 22 sen to RM20.42.
Tenaga Nasional lost nine sen to MR9.29, Sime Darby Plantation
fell eight se to RM4.42 and MISC shed six sen to RM7.15.
Active counters on the market were led by MQ Tech up 1.5 sen to seven sen , SMTrack rising 1.5 sen to eight sen and Advance Synergy gaining 0.5 sen to 19.5 sen.
