KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia is expected to continue its positive momentum next week on the back of improved market sentiment, while the valuation of Malaysian equities is still cheaper as compared with regional peers, a dealer said.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said cheaper Malaysian equities would offer better potential upsides for foreign investors.
“Moreover, we believe the short-term play for plantation as well as oil and gas stocks will remain for the time being given the crude palm oil price has exceeded RM7,000 per tonne, while Brent crude oil jumped to almost the US$100 per barrel in response to the conflict in Ukraine,” he told Bernama.
As such, he said the FBM KLCI is expected to trade within the 1,585 to 1,610 range next week.
“Technically, we see immediate resistance at the psychological 1,600 level, followed by 1,618, while support remains at 1,570,” he added.
For the week just-ended, Bursa Malaysia was traded mostly lower, tracking the volatility in regional markets and Wall Street amid escalating tensions due to the conflict in Ukraine.
On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the FBM KLCI fell 11.33 points to end the week at 1,591.72 from 1,603.05 last week.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index fell 101.27 points to 11,350.24, the FBMT100 Index slid 67.67 points to 11,023.17, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index shrank 194.24 points to 12,016.47.
Meanwhile, the FBM 70 dipped 288.80 points to 13,515.94, and the FBM ACE shed 345.92 points to 5,948.84.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index gained 83.96 points to 16,484.64, the Energy Index put on 2.12 points to 767.30, while the Plantation Index trimmed 21.94 points to 8,098.29.
The Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 2.98 points to 208.65, the Technology Index gave up 2.60 points to 78.37, and the Healthcare Index lost 88.53 points to 2,079.28.
Weekly turnover widened to 20.08 billion units worth RM15.97 billion from 17.91 billion units worth RM14.66 billion in the previous week.
The Main Market volume rose to 13.63 billion shares valued at RM14.56 billion versus 11.83 billion shares valued at RM13.14 billion previously.
Warrants volume fell to 1.66 billion units worth RM212.55 million from 1.84 billion units worth RM227.65 last week.
The ACE Market volume increased to 4.77 billion shares worth RM1.20 billion against 4.23 billion shares worth RM1.29 billion in the previous week. - Reuters
