Bursa Malaysia’s downtrend likely to continue

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia will likely continue its downtrend on gloomy investor sentiments, as well as profittaking ahead of the Hari Raya holiday, said analysts.

An analyst told Bernama that the macro factors expected to affectt the FTSE Bursa MalaysMalaysia KLCI includes the Group of Seven( G7) meeting as investors search for clues on the trade outlook, as well as the timing of the next interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve ( Fed) which meets on June 12.

“Investors believe any move will have a spillover effect on emerging markets like Malaysia and likely turn interest away from the equity market.

“Due to the volatile market sentiment, the local benchmark index is likely to trade sideways in testing the 1,730 and 1,740 support levels over the next weekly session,” he said.

Another analyst said the market’s performance will also depend on the ringgit’s movement against the US dollar, as well as, that of global oil prices.

“The current downtrend in oil prices is not only due to growing supply, but also an indication by Saudi Arabia and other big producers to increase output,” she told Bernama.

On a Friday- to- Friday basis, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was 21.94 points higher at 1,778.32 from 1,756.38.

The FBM Emas Index increased 237.17 points to 12,473.07, the FBMT100 Index rose 216.60 points to 12,270.56, the FBM 70 gained 486.20 points to 14,928.36 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index improved 245.39 points to 12,465.60.

The FBM Ace advanced 245.85 points to 5,295.40.

On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index rose 260.87 points to 17,877.90 and the Industrial Index went up 37.36 points to 3,202.18.But, the Plantation Index fell 39.29 points to 7,660.97.

Weekly turnover widened to 16.16 billion units worth RM14.38 billion from 13.32 billion units worth RM18.79 billion.

Main market volume increased to 10.38 billion shares worth RM12.86 billion from 9.08 billion shares worth RM18.13 billion.

Warrants turnover improved to 3.33 billion units valued at RM790.33 million versus 2.85 billion units valued at RM464.73 million.

The ACE market volume improved to 2.45 billion shares worth RM537.69 million from 1.38 billion shares worth RM200.66 million. — Bernama