KUALA LUMPUR, March 30 ― Bursa Malaysia is expected to be on cautious sentiment next week with the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) likely to remain stable until new catalysts emerge.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng expects the benchmark index to trade sideways for the time being until more clarity emerges regarding the anticipated United States (US) interest rate cut.

"The hope on Wall Street is still that the Fed will begin cutting its main interest rate in June.”

Thong anticipates the FBM KLCI to trend within the range of 1,527-1,557 next week.

"The FBM KLCI has remained in the consolidation phase over the past two weeks. Despite the ongoing deeper consolidation, the index has consistently remained above the 50-day Exponential Moving Averages (EMA).

"As such, we maintain our view that the benchmark index is still consolidating with a slight positive bias, with expectations of it hovering around the 20-day EMA,” he said.

Thong believes this consolidation will continue for a while longer, with support levels observed in the range of 1,525-1,531, followed by critical support at 1,520 and then 1,508.

On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the FBM KLCI eased 6.32 points to 1,536.07 from last week’s 1,542.39.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased 16.49 points to 11,571.59, the FBM 70 Index surged 263.38 points to 16,234.08, the FBM ACE Index jumped 40.72 points to 4,897.06, and the FBMT 100 Index was 13.39 points higher at 11,217.57.

However, the FBM Emas Shariah Index gave up 8.46 points to 11,643.52.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 0.90 of a point to 179.63, the Energy Index improved 18.02 points to 952.36, and the Financial Services Index firmed 84.39 points to 17,237.27, while the Plantation Index reduced 49.0 points to 7,287.67.

Weekly turnover declined to 14.40 billion units worth RM11.29 billion from 21.24 billion units worth RM14.16 billion the preceding week.

The Main Market volume shrank to 8.85 billion shares worth RM10.06 billion from 13.10 billion shares worth RM12.35 billion a week ago.

Warrant turnover decreased to 2.38 billion units valued at RM332.09 million versus 4.17 billion units valued at RM563.70 million last week.

The ACE Market volume reduced to 3.09 billion shares worth RM896.65 million from 3.92 billion shares worth RM1.24 billion previously. ― Bernama