Market likely to be firmer

Bursa Malaysia is likely to be firmer and the expected return of risk appetite will enable the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia (FBM KLCI) to retest its psychological level of 1,700.

Affin Investment Bank vice president/head of Retail Research, Dr Nazri Khan, said expectation of modest recovery in global risk sentiment will be market supportive for the sentiment.

“The US Federal Reserve is not expected to raise interest rate soon.

The greenback will make a pullback making ringgit gain its strength and commodities across the board will eventually recover.

“The local bourse should also get support from the buoyant Wall Street,” he told Bernama.

He said US President Donald Trump’s fiscal policy was also expected to help reduce global financial uncertainty and subsequently improve the risk appetite.

From a charting perspective, Kenanga Investment Bank Research said the FBM KLCI’s short- to medium- term trend remained modestly positive with the key index sporting rising peaks and troughs over the past two months.

“While the moving average convergence/divergence trend is still below a negative signal-line, we expect any weakness to be temporary.

“Upside bias is towards resistance level of 1,690 and 1,700 while downside support levels are 1,660 and 1,650,” it said.

For the week just-ended, the trading sessions were shortened with market closed for the Chinese New Year and Federal Territory holidays on Monday and Wednesday, respectively.

The FBM KLCI finished on an easier note on the first trading day of the Year of the Rooster, but gained its momentums on Thursday and Friday.

The FBM Emas Index improved 9.9 points to 11,838.56, FBM Ace surged 163.42 points to 5,103.19 and the FBM 70 added 29.94 points to 13,614.74.

The FBMT 100 Index fell 1.05 points to 11,531.33.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index edged up 33.86 points to 12,354.44. On a sectoral basis, the Plantation Index soared 139.75 points to 8,092.65, Finance Index declined 35.14 points to 14,848.64 and the Industrial Index fell 48.42 points to 3,205.60.

Weekly turnover shrank to 4.94 billion units worth RM5.96 billion from 6.85 billion units worth RM8.60 billion last Friday.

The main market volume narrowed to 3.57 billion shares valued at RM5.72 billion from 4.71 billion shares valued at RM18.29 billion last week.

Warrant turnover fell to 481.34 million units worth RM58.82 million from 904.75 million units worth RM109.29 million previously.

The ACE market declined to 868.06 million shares worth RM175.83 million from 1.20 billion shares worth RM200.59 million last Friday. — Bernama