KUALA LUMPUR, April 6 — Bursa Malaysia is likely to remain in sideways pattern next week, with an upside bias seen for the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI).

Nonetheless, the longer outlook remains positive, said Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng.

"We uphold our view that if the benchmark index were to breach the 1,557 resistance level and sustain it over an extended period, there will be further upside potential.

"The FBM KLCI staged a rebound and formed a long white candle on Thursday plus a white candle on Friday. It has also moved further away from all exponential moving average (EMA) lines, with the 20-day EMA showing an upward trend,” Thong told Bernama.

The brokerage, he said, is anticipating this bullish momentum to drive the index towards the next resistance level of 1,570 once the bulls regain strength.

Meanwhile, the immediate support level is now at 1,537, to be followed by 1,520.

"As such, we anticipate the index will hover within the 1,537-1,570 range for next week,” he added.

On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the FBM KLCI added 19.18 points to 1,555.25 from last week’s 1,536.07.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased 131.59 points to 11,703.18, the FBM 70 Index advanced 97.99 points to 16,332.07, the FBM ACE Index ticked up 84.53 points to 4,981.59, the FBMT 100 Index rose 121.17 points to 11,338.74, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index climbed 222.58 points to 11,866.10.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 5.43 points to 185.06, the Energy Index improved 15.14 points to 967.50, and the Plantation Index bagged 172.42 points to 7,460.09, but the Financial Services Index erased 33.85 points to 17,239.42.

Weekly turnover expanded to 19.34 billion units worth RM13.19 billion compared with 14.40 billion units valued at RM11.29 billion in the preceding week.

The Main Market volume surged to 10.68 billion shares valued at RM11.43 billion from 8.85 billion shares worth RM10.06 billion a week ago.

Warrant turnover increased to 4.21 billion units worth RM489.19 million versus 2.38 billion units valued at RM332.09 million last week.

The ACE Market volume grew to 4.41 billion shares valued at RM1.25 billion against 3.09 billion shares worth RM896.65 million previously. — Bernama