KUALA LUMPUR, May 29 — The key index of Bursa Malaysia is expected to hover between 1,580 and 1,600 next week, as sentiment continued to be clouded by the surging Covid-19 cases in the country.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd head of equity sales Vincent Lau said investor sentiment remained fragile as the rising cases had sparked fears of another full lockdown among market players.

"Without the lockdown woes, the barometre index is likely to breach the next resistance level of 1,600.

"But given the current situation whereby the new Covid-19 cases crossed 8,000 cases yesterday, the market barometre is likely to move between 1,580 and 1,600 next week,” he told Bernama.

He anticipated that traders might look to buy on weakness should the stocks retreat significantly next week.

Meanwhile, both Lau and Areca Capital Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Danny Wong shared a similar view that recovery-themed sectors such as technology, glove and healthcare might stage a comeback next week.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah tweeted yesterday that Malaysia reported a record 8,290 new Covid-19 cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases in the country to-date to 549,514.

Following the spike in new infections, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement late yesterday that the special session of the National Security Council (MKN) on Covid-19 management had decided to implement a total lockdown on the social and economic sectors (first phase) nationwide from June 1 to June 14.

According to the statement, throughout this period all sectors will not be allowed to operate, except for essential economic and service sectors to be listed by MKN.

The government will also implement a second phase lockdown that will allow the reopening of some economic sectors that do not involve large gatherings and can comply with physical distancing, if the first phase succeeds in reducing Covid-19 daily cases.

"This second phase will be enforced for a period of four weeks after the first phase ends,” it said.

For the week just ended, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) expanded 32.27 points to 1,594.44 from 1,562.17 registered yesterday of the previous week.

During the holiday-shortened trading week, the market hit intra-day high on three consecutive days as solid corporate earnings for the quarter ended March 31, 2021, eclipsed jitters caused by the tightened movement control order 3.0 announcement made last Saturday.

However, gains in the market were capped by concerns over the rising Covid-19 cases after the country reported several fresh highs of infections over the past week, with the highest number touching 8,290 cases yesterday.

The local bourse was closed on Wednesday for the Wesak Day celebration.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 242.47 points higher at 11,578.50, the FBMT 100 Index leapt 234.38 points to 11,276.60, the FBM Emas Shariah Index jumped 239.01 points to 12,847.04, the FBM 70 strengthened 332.99 points to 14.869.65, and the FBM ACE was 219.01 points firmer at 7,843.88.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index surged 399.13 points to 15,167.13, the Plantation Index gained 8.94 points to 6,908.46, and the Industrial Products and Services Index added 5.79 points to 193.09.

The Energy Index perked 17.68 points to 863.60, the Technology Index lifted 3.47 points to 78.98, and the Healthcare Index bagged 2.69 points to 3,134.39.

Weekly turnover eased to 30.51 billion units worth RM18.84 billion against 32.44 billion units worth RM16.52 billion in the previous week.

Main Market volume narrowed to 16.84 billion shares valued at RM14.96 billion versus 18.69 billion shares valued at RM15.29 billion last week.

Warrants volume declined to 944.87 million units worth RM104.14 million compared with 1.53 billion units worth RM152.39 million previously.

The ACE Market volume went up to 12.71 billion shares valued at RM3.75 billion from 12.24 billion shares valued at RM4.21 billion in the preceding week. ­— Bernama