Bursa to trade higher next week on improved ringgit, oil prices

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia is expected to continue its upward momentum into next week, driven by an improved ringgit and rising crude oil prices, said Affin Hwang Investment Bank Vice-President and Retail Research Head Datuk Dr Nazri Khan Adam Khan.

He said the potential for stimulus measures by foreign Central Banks and the absence of any US Federal Reserve interest rate hike would also influence the local bourse next week.

"Despite a big drop on the China's Shanghai Stock Market and 'Britain Exit European Union' (BREXIT) fears, we expect the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) to remain steady and trend higher.

"With the underlying trend of a strengthening ringgit and crude oil prices, we sense a good buy investment strategy now, especially on emerging trading interest in plantation and oil and gas stocks," he told Bernama.

The ringgit closed higher at 4.2010/2070 against the US dollar on Friday, from the 4.2160/2230 registered on Thursday.

On a weekly basis, the FBM KLCI finished 11.44 points lower at 1,663.44, mostly weighed on by the movement of crude oil prices.

The index reversed its losses recorded on Wednesday and Thursday in ending the week marginally higher, as oil prices recovered from an early weakness with markets looking towards a meeting of the major producers next month.

The key Brent Crude settled at US$35.29 a barrel, up 2.6%, while the US West Texas Intermediate was 2.8% higher at US$33.05.

It was a volatile week for oil prices as comments from various Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) officials fuelled market speculation that oil producers would not respect the agreement to freeze output as proposed by Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Meanwhile, the FBM Emas Index fell 81.54 points to 11,540.64, the FBMT100 Index depreciated 74.52 points to 11,245.43 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index dropped 152.29 points to 12,310.18.

The FBM 70 gave up 74.41 points for 12,776.12, and the FBM Ace eased 92.42 points to 5,690.6.

On a sectoral basis, the Plantation Index decreased 87.49 points to 7,837.09 and the Industrial Index lost 64.14 points to 3,249.47.But, the Finance Index rose 42.05 points to 14,028.51.

Weekly turnover was marginally higher at 8.39 billion units worth RM8.76 billion from 8.36 billion units worth RM8.76 billion last week.

Main market volume slipped to 5.39 billion shares valued at 8.25 billion, from 5.82 billion shares valued at 8.28 billion.

Warrants turnover shrank to 866.76 million units worth RM180.39 million, from 1.01 billion units worth RM190.01 million.

The ACE market surged to 2.12 billion shares worth RM302.42 million from 1.52 billion shares worth RM296.45 million. – Bernama