Bursa Malaysia likely to rebound

KUALA LUMPUR: The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) is likely to rebound with the benchmark index moving between 1,750 and 1,760 points aided by the positive sentiment brought by the 2018 Budget.

Affin Hwang Investment Bank vice-president and head of Retail Research,, Datuk Dr Nazri Khan SHORT-ORT-TERM rates are exexpectedted to remain stable with BankkNNegara MMalaysiali liklikelyl tto offer tenders to absorb surplus funds from the system.

For the week just-ended, the overnight rate was quoted at 2.97 per cent, while the one-, two- and three-week rates stood at 3.02 per cent, 3.06 per cent and 3.11 per cent, respectively.

The central bank intervened on a daily basis to mop up surplus liquidity by conducting conventional money market tenders, Qard tenders, rangematurity auction money market tenders, a repo tender, a reverse repo tender, Commodity Murabahah Programmes and an Islamic range-maturity Qard tender.

The total liquidity surplus in the conventional system for the week just-ended narrowed to RM26.70 billion from RM27.79 billion last week, while in the Islamic system, it fell to RM5.51 billion versus RM5.90 billion previously.

The benchmark three-month interbank rate stood at 3.43 per cent. Adam Khan said the budget was considered as expansionary, with lots of incentives given to different groups of people which in turn would be good for the national economy.

“The goodies in the budget is expected to create more speculation and spark rotational buying.

“The local market was oversold and deeply consolidated for seven weeks which had attracted bargain hunters from among locals and foreign.

“We are seeing increasing number of bargain hunters entered the market and expected to see more with good sentiment surrounding the local market,” he told Bernama.

Dr Nazri added that the local bourse was expected to track its Asian peers which was rallying on the back of a firm Wall Street, as well as, a continuous recovery in commodity prices.

On a weekly basis, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI improved 5.48 points to 1,746.13 from 1,740.65 last Friday.

The FBM Emas Index increased 37.82 points to 12,551.61, the FBMT 100 Index added 35.69 points to 12,191.47, the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 484.32 points to 12,998.11 and the FBM 70 gained 35.13 points to 15,313.31.

The FBM Ace fell 68.03 points to 6,881.34. On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index slipped 37.66 points to 16,258.44, the Industrial Index improved 13.94 points to 3,204.17 and the Plantation Index added 28.88 points to 7,951.47.

Total turnover increased to 12.96 billion units, valued at RM10.76 billion, from 1ast week’s 1.79 billion units worth RM9.28 billion.

Main Market volume rose to 8.68 billion shares, valued at RM9.97 billion, from 6.43 billion shares, worth RM8.35 billion, previously.

Warrants turnover improved to 777.52 million units, worth RM80.23 million, versus 626.73 million units worth RM70.06 million, traded last week.

The ACE Market decreased to 3.43 billion units valued at RM695.06 million compared with 4.66 billion units valued at RM854.74 million, previously. — Bernama THE three- month Kuala Lumpur Interbank Offered Rate (KLIBOR) futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives is likely to remain quiet in the absence of market catalysts.

For the week just- ended, the market was untraded with open interest remaining nil.

On a Friday-to-Friday basis, November 2017, December 2017, January 2018 and March 2018 stood at 96.52, 96.50, 96.50 and 96.50, respectively.

The underlying three-month KLIBOR on the cash market remained at 3.43 per cent on Friday.