KUALA LUMPUR, April 2 — Bursa Malaysia is expected to trade range-bound next week as investor sentiment is likely to remain cautious due to lack of catalysts, said an analyst.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) is expected to hover at the 1,595-1,605 range next week.

"With market volatility heightened again, we believe the regional and local markets will be similarly affected and investor sentiment will remain jittery although bargain-hunting may prevail,” he told Bernama.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said sentiment would continue to be determined by external events such as the military conflicts in Ukraine, higher commodity prices, as well as global monetary tightening.

"Having said that, it is noteworthy to see that foreign funds have been net buyers in the first three months of this year, with RM6.4 billion net purchases.

"Perhaps, it signifies that values have already emerged in our equities market,” he told Bernama.

Mohd Afzanizam said the FBM KLCI surpassed the psycological level of 1,600 points on Friday and it was in tandem with the international borders reopening commencing April 1.

"We could see stocks related to airlines and consumer sector staging a rebound, along with the plantation counters,” he said.

For the week just-ended, the FBM KLCI moved in tandem with the performance of global equity markets, influenced by the development of geopolitical conflict and Wall Street performance following the expectation of an earlier interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve.

On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the FBM KLCI eased 0.89 of-a-point to end the week at 1,602.41 from 1,603.30 in the previous week.

On the index board, the FBMT100 Index gained 7.0 points to 11,150.00, the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 52.74 points to 12,033.85, and the FBM Emas Index rose 13.36 points to 11,471.65.

Meanwhile, the FBM ACE gained 70.60 points to 5,685.88, and the FBM 70 surged 62.18 points to 13,872.85.

Sector-wise, the Technology Index dipped 2.03 points to 77.42, the Plantation Index lost 134.82 points to 7,948.76, while the Industrial Products and Services Index rose 1.16 points to 206.35.

The Healthcare Index jumped 75.46 points to 2,187.29, the Financial Services Index advanced 165.13 points to 16,908.86, and the Energy Index added 3.23 points to 720.74.

Weekly turnover went down to 14.45 billion units valued at RM10.56 billion from 14.56 billion units valued at RM12.08 billion on Friday last week.

The Main Market volume decreased to 9.90 billion shares worth RM9.50 billion versus 9.99 billion shares worth RM11.05 billion in the previous week.

Warrants volume fell marginally to 1.95 billion units valued at RM320.47 million against 1.96 billion units valued at RM337.12 million in the previous week.

The ACE Market volume slid to 2.58 billion shares worth RM727.76 million against 2.61 billion shares worth RM686.62 million the week before. — Bernama