KUALA LUMPUR, April 17 — Bursa Malaysia is expected to continue its current momentum into next week, with the key index to move in a tight range amid cautious market sentiment.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) would likely move between 1,600 and 1,615 points next week.

"(The tight range expectation is because) investors would seek to find a balance between the nation’s vaccination progress with the recent uptick in Covid-19 cases, which is signalling a fourth wave,” he told Bernama.

On the external front, Adam said there would not be many major events next week except for the upcoming European central bank meeting on April 22 which would likely provide guidance on its bond purchasing, moving forward.

He also reckoned that many countries namely Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom and also Malaysia would be releasing their consumer price index data next week.

"Malaysia is likely to record a stronger year-on-year (YoY) growth in March compared to the 0.1 per cent YoY growth in February, amid a low base effect, mainly due to the movement control order in March last year,” he said.

For the week just ended, the local bourse started on a weak note largely due to profit taking in telecommunications giants, Axiata and Digi, whereby the stocks were heavily traded a week earlier on possible merger news.

The momentum continued on Tuesday with FBM KLCI settling below its 1,600 psychological level due to selling by foreign investors amid weak market sentiment brought about by the extension of the conditional movement control order and recovery movement control order in several states.

Bursa, however, rebounded the next day onwards thanks to strong gains in rubber glove counters as buying interest resurfaced with Covid-19 infections in the country continuing to show an uptrend.

On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the benchmark FBM KLCI decreased marginally by 3.87 points to 1,608.38 from 1,612.25 registered last Friday.

On the index board, FBM Emas was 48.14 points easier at 11,850.78, FBMT 100 decreased 42.99 points to 11,503.57, FBM 70 fell 117.8 points to 15,669.179, FBM ACE dropped 1,398.19 points to 8,597.35, and FBM Emas Shariah shed 5.72 points to 13,275.44 .

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index reduced 103.58 points to 6,880.05; Financial Services Index went down 138.67 points to 15,075.16; Technology Index slipped 0.13 of-a-point to 87.52; and Telecommunication and Media index contracted 21.46 points to 726.26.

The Healthcare Index, however, rose 121.77 points to 3,171.12, the Industrial Products and Services Index added 3.27 points to 196.83, and the Energy Index gained 2.57 points to 922.67.

Turnover decreased to 31.31 billion units worth RM18.53 billion from 34.59 billion units worth RM18.68 billion in the previous week.

Main Market volume slipped to 18.76 billion shares worth RM14.47 billion from 19.89 billion shares worth RM15.34 billion last week.

Warrants volume improved to 2.0 billion units worth RM272.89 million from 1.74 million units worth RM231.26 million previously.

The ACE Market volume shrank to 10.54 billion shares worth RM3.79 billion from 12.94 billion shares worth RM3.11 billion the week earlier. — Bernama