Bursa Malaysia to trend lower

Bursa Malaysia is expected to trend lower in line with the global stock market performance as investors remained cautious over escalating US-China trade tensions.

Hermana Capital Bhd chief executive officer and chief investment officer Datuk Dr Nazri Khan Adam Khan said trade tensions between two of the world biggest economies was gettingg serious and could trigger the second round of tariff war worth US$50 billion anytime.

“We expect the market will go lower with support set at 1,660 while resistance is at 1,700,” he told Bernama.

The first round of US tariff imposition on US$ 34 billion of Chinese imports kicked off yesterday and Beijing responded by imposing a tariff rate of 25 per cent on US goods, equalling Washington’s rate on Chinese imports.

Domestically, Nazri Khan said the stock market’s technical data and fundamentals remained weak with a lot of news that emerged to discourage foreign investors to come in.

“There are a lot of stories (that) came out that we’ve never heard before and more are going to be dug up. Some of this would surprise investors,” he added.

He said foreign outflow continued after a reversal last week as foreign investors continued to take cautious stance.

“There is no sign that foreign fund is firming up,” he said.

For the week just-ended, the local bourse trended mostly lower, tracking regional peers, on cautious sentiment on global trade tensions.

On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was 27.65 points easier at 1,663.86 from 1,691.5 in the previous week.

The FBM Emas Index fell 161.94 points to 11,798.99 and the FBMT100 Index shed 162.69 points to 11,595.24.

The FBM 70 declined 92.35 points to 14,534.71 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index lost 129.25 points to 121,963.3.

The FBM Ace was 106.65 points higher at 5,234.18.

On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index dipped 309.01 points to 16,340.9, the Plantation Index fell 112.78 points to 7,421.38 and the Industrial Index was down 39.91 points at 3,087.62.

Weekly turnover widened to 10.05 billion units worth RM8.36 billion from 9.70 billion units worth RM10.52 billion previously.

Main market volume expanded to 5.99 billion shares valued at RM7.01 billion from 5.90 billion shares valued at RM9.53 billion.

Warrants turnover contracted to 2.64 billion units worth RM817.89 million from 2.75 billion units worth RM814.09 million in the previous week.

The ACE market volume decreased to 1.40 billion shares valued at RM290.52 million from 2.58 billion shares valued at RM178.25 million. — Bernama