Bursa Malaysia likely to trend lower
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia will likely trend lower on profit-taking and influenced by fears of a US interest rate hike, alongside declining commodity prices.
Affin Hwang Investment Bank vice-president/Hhead of Retail Research, Datuk Dr Nazri Khan Adam Khan said he expects the key FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI to stage a further correction, with 1,750 as the immediate target, following the bearish performance of global stocks.
“We see that investor enthusiasm for global equities has been damped, as fears over the path of quantitative easing in the region sparked a global market sell-off.
“Most global markets lost ground after the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s last meeting showed a lack of consensus on the future pace of interest rate rises, while oil prices inched lower after a temporary climb a day earlier,” he told Bernama.
Throughout the week, the local bourse traded mostly on a cautious mode as many participants chose not to trade in an aggressive manner, as they wanted to let the market settle down for a little while, before taking a stock position.
This showed that market participants are unwilling to bet on an expectation of Bursa Malaysia moving upward just because it has been staying in a range bound environment.
On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the FBM KLCI fell 3.74 points to 1,759.93 from last Friday’s 1,763.67, on the back of uncertainties in the equities, bonds and currencies markets, as well as being influenced by Wall Street’s performance.
The FBM Emas Index gave up 48.17 points for 12,550.77, the FBMT 100 Index eased 46.82 points to 12,188.07 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index slipped 55.90 points to 12,766.25.
The FBM 70 lost 136.00 points to 14,937.83 and the FBM Ace fell 34.60 points to 6,528.30.
On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index eased 3.59 points to 16,762.59, the Industrial Index shed 27.27 points to 3,243.29 and the Plantation Index declined 41.21 points to 7,871.99
The week saw total turnover rising to 8.01 billion units worth RM8.53 billion from 4.29 billion units worth RM5.72 billion last week.
Main market volume soared to 5.52 billion shares valued at RM7.99 billion from 2.98 billion shares valued at RM5.46 billion.
Warrants volume increased to 687.91 million units worth RM95.23 million from 389.96 million units worth RM49.47 million.
The ACE Market turnover widened to 1.71 billion shares valued at RM407.48 million from 905.76 million shares valued at RM202.37 million. — Bernama