Range-bound play with upside bias expected on bursa next week

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia is likely to trade range bound next week with an upside bias.
A dealer said judging from Friday's market closing performance, buying power was greater than selling pressure, and there is a tendency for the local bourse to start another rally to continue its bullish momentum next week.
He said healthy profit-taking was observed with traders reportedly trimming some positions ahead of the long weekend break, but key heavyweights were holding well.
"If Wall Street performs well overnight, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) will start Tuesday higher.
"Buying interest had been rotationally distributed with mixed participation of foreign funds, local institutional and retail.Thus, it will be range-bound for the shorter trading week but with an upside bias," he told Bernama.
The market will be closed on Monday (May 1) for the Labour Day public holiday.
Meanwhile, Maybank Investment Bank in a note said it was maintaining the expectation that the FBM KLCI will likely trade between 1,760 and 1,775 in the near-term, with the downside support at 1,729 and 1,715.
Kenanga Investment Bank, however, said the technical indicators of the benchmark index showed signs of rolling over from the oversold levels, suggesting the bulls could take a breather soon.
"If the FBM KLCI fails to garner strength to close above the 1,770 mark, it could look to consolidate.
"Overhead resistance is seen at 1,776 and 1,800, with support at 1,743 and 1,727," it added.
For the week just-ended, the shorter trading week (Monday was a public holiday in conjunction with the coronation of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Muhammad V) the local bourse took cue from the performance of Wall Street.
Foreign funds too reportedly entered the local bourse. After four consecutive sessions of rallies in index-linked counters, the market took a breather on Thursday, and managed to end marginally higher on Friday.
On a week-to-week basis, the FBM KLCI advanced 12.01 points to 1,768.06 from 1,756.05 and supported by buying in index-linked counters, as well as selected blue chips, especially the finance-related and Syariah-compliant stocks.
The FBM Emas Index rose 140.94 points to 12,631.52, the FBMT 100 Index chalked up 133.04 points to 12,259.26, the FBM Emas Syariah Index advanced 124.43 points to 12,972.49, the FBM 70 soared 350.19 points to 15,080.97, and the FBM Ace improved 84.04 points to 6,242.16.
On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index surged 292.59 points to 16,301.17, the Plantation Index climbed 70.07 points to 8,097.34, while the Industrial Index edged up 9.61 points to 3,219.17.
Turnover for the shorter week shed to 13.76 billion units worth RM11.90 billion from 14.29 billion units worth RM11.31 billion recorded last week.
Main Market volume contracted to 8.93 billion shares worth RM11.19 billion from last week's 9.85 billion shares worth RM10.65 billion.
Warrants' turnover jumped to 1.35 billion units worth RM146.6 million from 893.88 million units worth RM112.2 million transacted last week.
The ACE Market shrank to 3.41 billion shares worth RM564.78 million from 3.49 billion shares worth RM536.93 million traded previously. — Bernama