KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 7 — Bursa Malaysia is expected to continue trading in a cautious mode next week, with the benchmark index hovering within a range of between 1,490 and 1,500 points, a dealer said.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said, amid the fragile market sentiment, investors would continue monitoring the high number of Covid-19 cases in the country, as well as developments in China’s regulatory crackdown on the education and technology sector.

Nevertheless, next week would be an eventful week as Malaysia’s second-quarter 2021 (Q2 2021) gross domestic product (GDP) would be released next Friday, he said.

"All eyes will be on the GDP figures as investors will want to gauge Malaysia’s economic growth trajectory especially after the full-scale lockdown was imposed during the quarter that led to restricted working capacity for some manufacturing sectors.

"Perhaps any positive surprises from the release of the GDP data could likely support some gains in the market next week,” he told Bernama.

Adam expected the market to trade sideways as investors await the GDP data on Friday.

Aside from Malaysia, he said countries such as the Philippines, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong would also be releasing their Q2 2021 GDP data throughout next week.

For the week just-ended, Bursa Malaysia swung between gains and losses during the five trading days amid heightened political uncertainties, coupled with concerns over the high local daily Covid-19 cases which hit record highs for the third day on Friday.

Malaysia recorded 20,889 new Covid-19 infections on Friday — the highest daily total since the pandemic struck the country in February last year.

Overall, for the local bourse, the FBM KLCI shed 4.8 points to end the week at 1,489.80 from 1,494.60 a week earlier.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 19.37 points lower at 10,954.1, the FBMT 100 Index declined 17.62 points to 10,954.1, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index trimmed 13.13 points to 12,035.95.

The FBM Ace soared 95.35 points to 7,175.98 and the FBM 70 increased 40.89 points to 14,559.18.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index added 1.49 points to 188.69, the Plantation Index rose 86.41 points to 6,125.45, and the Financial Services Index climbed 23.01 points to 14,704.46.

The Energy Index gave up 26.16 points to 713.24, the Healthcare Index fell 115.06 points to 2,702.94 and the Technology Index added 4.46 points to 92.81.

Weekly turnover decreased to 20.23 billion units valued at RM12.59 billion from 21.44 billion units valued at RM13.20 billion in the previous week.

Main Market volume widened to 12.89 billion shares worth RM10.56 billion against last week’s 11.87 billion shares worth RM10.28 billion.

Warrants volume narrowed to 1.48 billion units valued at RM199.49 million from 1.79 billion units valued at RM248.16 million previously.

The Ace Market volume reduced to 6.44 billion shares worth RM1.83 billion versus 7.78 billion shares worth RM2.66 billion last week. — Bernama