KUALA LUMPUR, March 26 — Bursa Malaysia is expected to trade range-bound within the 1,590-1,610 range next week as investors anticipate mild profit-taking in the index-linked counters.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said that on the domestic front, the benchmark index has broken the 1,600 and he maintains his cautiously optimistic view on the market due to foreign funds support and cheap valuations of the local market against regional peers.

“As such we expect the FBM KLCI to trend range-bound with immediate resistance at 1,620 and support at 1,580.

The mid-term view on Bursa Malaysia remains intact, however for the short term, we might see mild profit — taking,” he told Bernama.

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 the Wall Street performance following the persistently high inflation in the US.

On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the FBM KLCI strengthened 12.04 points to end the week at 1,603.30 from 1,591.26 in the previous week.

On the index board, the FBMT100 Index gained 166.28 points to 11.143.00, the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 268.60 points to 12,086.59, the FBM Emas Index rose 189.82 points to 11,458.29.

Meanwhile, the FBM ACE gained 275.82 points to 5,615.28, and the FBM 70 surged 542.69 points to 13,810.67.

Sector-wise, the Technology Index improved 6.49 points to 79.45, the Plantation Index gained 173.63 points to 8,083.58, while the Industrial Products and Services Index rose 1.85 points to 205.19.

The Healthcare Index jumped 49.43 points to 2,111.83, the Financial Services Index gained 11.94 points to 16,743.73, and the Energy Index added 5.0 points to 723.97.

Weekly turnover inched up to 14.56 billion units valued at RM12.08 billion from 14.48 billion units valued at RM16.85 billion the previous week.

The Main Market volume increased to 9.99 billion shares worth RM11.05 billion versus 9.53 billion shares worth RM15.73 billion previously.

Warrants volume dropped to 1.96 billion units valued at RM337.12 million against 2.73 billion units valued at RM522.76 million the previous week.

The ACE Market volume increased to 2.61 billion shares worth RM686.62 million against 2.21 billion shares worth RM599.21 million the week before. — Bernama