KUALA LUMPUR, March 5 ― Bursa Malaysia is expected to be range-bound next week as investor sentiment is likely to remain cautious due to market volatility, a dealer said.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said foreign funds were expected to continue accumulating local stocks to take advantage of the low valuations against regional peers.

"As such we expect the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) to trend range-bound and hover within the 1,600-1,620 range for next week with immediate resistance at 1,618 and support at 1,570,” he told Bernama.

For the week just ended, the FBM KLCI traded mostly lower amid heightened market volatility in the region while tracking the movements on Wall Street and escalating tensions due to the conflict in Ukraine.

In another development, Bank Negara Malaysia decided to hold the Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) at 1.75 per cent on Thursday.

The central bank said the overall recovery trajectory remained on track despite the recent moderation in economic activity due to the Omicron-driven COVID-19 resurgences.

On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the FBM KLCI rose 12.22 points to end the week at 1,603.94 from 1,591.72 in the previous week.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index fell 8.73 points to 11,341.51, the FBMT100 Index rose 7.96 points to 11,031.13, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index widened 62.90 points to 12,079.37.

Meanwhile, the FBM 70 dipped 328.75 points to 13,187.19, and the FBM ACE lost 440.78 points to 5,508.06.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index shed 91.41 points to 16,393.23, the Energy Index gave up 27.49 points to 739.81, and the Plantation Index advanced 449.22 points to 8,547.51.

The Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 4.57 points to 213.22, the Technology Index erased 6.67 points to 71.70, and the Healthcare Index gained 2.76 points to 2,082.04.

Weekly turnover fell to 16.80 billion units worth RM17.96 billion from 20.08 billion units worth RM15.97 billion in the previous week.

The Main Market volume eased to 11.78 billion shares valued at RM16.77 billion versus 13.63 billion shares valued at RM14.56 billion previously.

Warrants volume grew to 1.70 billion units worth RM212.45 million from 1.66 billion units worth RM212.55 million last week.

The ACE Market volume decreased to 3.29 billion shares worth RM976.09 million against 4.77 billion shares worth RM1.20 billion in the previous week. ― Bernama