Upward momentum on Bursa Malaysia to continue

KUALA LUMPUR: The upward trajectory on Bursa Malaysia will likely to continue as investors are set to accumulate their positions on the back of positive developments globally.

Affin Hwang Investment Bank vice-president and head of Retail Research, Datuk Dr Nazri Khan Adam Khan said the local market would be actively traded as investors’ appetitepp was restored as worries over the geopolitical tension related to the North Korea and Syria had eased.

He said the US tax reform, as indicated by the Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that the White House planned to release a tax plan “very soon”, would be among main focus.

“If Trump managed to secure approval from the Congress, this would trigger bullish sentiment into the global stock market,” he told Bernama.

Market players would also closely monitor the France’s presidential election, which the outcome could influence the movement of global stock market, be it directly or indirectly, he added.

On the local front, Nazri Khan said the recentlylaunched Bumiputera Economic Transformation Roadmap (BETR) 2.0 of the Bumiputera Wellbeing Transformation would positively spur buying for bumiputeralinked stocks.

For the week just-ended, the local stock market performed stronger as sentiment in the market recovered following the easing geopolitical tension related to North Korea and Syria.

Other external factors influenced the movement of Bursa included trading performance on the Wall Street and other regional peers, US tax reform, volatility in oil prices, as well as US trade probe on Chinese steel exports.

On a week-to-week basis, the FBM KLCI rose 25.06 points to 1,756.05 from 1,730.99 supported by buying in index-linked counters as well as selected bluechips especially the finance- and banking-related stocks.

The FBM Emas Index soared 182.46 points to 12,490.58, the FBMT 100 Index chalked up 178.11 points to 12,126.22, the FBM Emas Shariah Index advanced 88.66 points to 12,848.06, the FBM 70 surged 235.5 points to 14,730.78, and the FBM Ace improved 156.5 points to 6,158.12.

On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index jumped 443.87 points to 16,008.58, the Plantation Index rose 113.24 points to 8,027.27, but the Industrial Index gave up 27.6 points for 3,209.56.

Weekly turnover declined to 14.29 billion units, worth RM11.31 billion, from 18.92 billion units valued at RM11.54 billion recorded last week.

Main Market volume contracted to 9.85 billion shares, worth RM10.65 billion, from last week’s 12.27 billion shares, valued at RM10.64 billion.

Warrants’ turnover increased to 893.88 million units worth RM112.2 million, from 812.96 million units, valued at RM102.98 million, transacted last week.

The ACE Market shrank to 3.49 billion shares, worth RM536.93 million, from 5.78 billion shares, valued at RM789.85 million, traded ppreviously.y — Bernama