Bursa Malaysia to trade in cautious mode with upside bias next week

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 6 — Bursa Malaysia is expected to trade in cautious mode with an upside bias next week, with the benchmark index hovering within 1,525 to 1,530-point range, a dealer said.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the local bourse was expected to draw some buying interest as fundamentally, the economy is poised to recover following the reopening of various sectors.

“Such narrative holds true and will be earnings accretive,” he told Bernama.

He noted that the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) saw a significant decline during the past week following the announcement of Cukai Makmur during Budget 2022 tabling last week.

“Despite that, the fall in the FBM KLCI was very much in line with the technical indicators which suggest that the equities barometre had already entered the overbought position prior to the announcement of the budget.

“In that sense, the market is prime for correction,” he added.

For the coming week, he said the focus will be on the United States Federal Reserve and the data points coming from the US for market direction.

“The market is awaiting additional evidence that the Federal Funds Rate would be raised next year. This can be tricky as equities tend to be negative on monetary tightening news,” he said.

Meanwhile, Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng opined that the local market was expected to remain under selling pressure over the short term due to outflow of foreign funds.

“We anticipated the FBM KLCI to move around the 1,520 to 1,560 range for next week given the heightened volatility.

“From a technical point of view, immediate support is unchanged at 1,520 while resistance is spotted at 1,565,” he added.

On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the benchmark index fell 30.58 points to end the week at 1,531.73 from 1,562.31 previously.

Bursa Malaysia and its subsidiaries were closed on Thursday in conjunction with Deepavali holiday.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index fell 194.87 points to 11,364.13, the FBMT100 Index dropped 198.16 points to 10,990.93, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 179.85 points to 12,411.74.

The FBM 70 weakened 189.85 points to 15,112.52, while the FBM ACE improved 28.32 points to 7,124.49.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index was down 422.33 points to 15,166.88, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 4.23 points easier at 202.56, and the Energy Index shed 18.28 points to 782.62.

The Plantation Index fell 62.25 points to 6,726.57, the Healthcare Index erased 29.49 points to 2,413.65, but the Technology Index inched up 1.64 points to 100.64.

For the holiday-shortened week, weekly turnover decreased to 13.70 billion units worth RM10.61 billion from 18.8 billion units worth RM12.42 billion in the previous week.

The Main Market volume fell to 9.07 billion shares valued at RM9.18 billion from 12.16 billion shares worth RM10.72 billion in the prior week.

Warrants volume narrowed to 1.25 billion units worth RM211.44 million versus 1.30 billion units valued at RM206.56 million previously.

The ACE Market volume dwindled to 3.36 billion shares worth RM1.22 billion from 5.31 billion shares worth RM1.50 billion in the previous week. — Bernama