KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 20 — Bursa Malaysia is expected to trade higher next week, catapulting on Malaysia’s vaccination drive which will start next week on Friday following the scheduled delivery of the vaccine on Feb 21, 2021.

"This is on condition that the vaccination drive commences without any hiccups,” said Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim.

According to him, investors are likely to have a strong risk-appetite towards local equities and henceforth trading activity is expected to be high next week.

"Therefore, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) could likely rebound to breach 1,600 points next week while the ringgit could appreciate further against the greenback to touch RM4.02-RM4.03 per United States (US) dollar next week,” he told Bernama today.

The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme launched on Tuesday will see Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin taking the lead in getting vaccinated on Feb 26, along with the frontliners.

The programme is scheduled to stretch to February next year.

Bursa Malaysia was open for half-a-day trading on Thursday last week — eve of Chinese New Year, and all-day closure the following day, Friday.

On a Friday-to-Thursday basis, the benchmark FBM KLCI eased 14.49 points to 1,584.93 from last week’s 1,599.42.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index decreased 20.21 points to 11,641.61 and the FBMT 100 Index trimmed 59.7 points to 11,320.34.

The FBM 70 rose 87.7 points to 15,359.35, the FBM ACE Index surged 365.39 points to 11,248.62, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index inched down 1.16 points to 13,119.09.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index receded 165.69 points to 14,872.78; Industrial Products and Services Index gained 1.7 points to 182.27; and Plantation Index rose 43.36 points to 7,189.05.

The Energy Index added 85.15 points to 946.95; Technology Index inched up 2.24 points to 89.91; and Healthcare Index slipped 20.57 points to 3,451.54.  

Turnover increased to 61.61 billion units worth RM28.79 billion from 3.21 billion units worth RM2.04 billion recorded in the previous week.

Main Market volume improved 40.97 billion units worth RM23.49 billion against 2.23 billion units worth RM1.65 billion last week.

Warrants turnover rose 1.66 billion units worth RM248.97 million from 184.12 million units worth RM30.39 million previously.

The ACE Market volume gained 18.96 billion units worth RM5.04 billion shares from 787.86 million units worth RM359.04 million. — Bernama