Bursa Malaysia to continue upbeat momentum

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia is expected to continue its positive momentum, amid cautious sentiment on the regional and global market, dealers said.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the valuation of the FBM KLCI remains attractive, with the benchmark index having successfully maintained above the 1,500-mark after surpassing this resistance level last week.

“Additionally, it has continued to trend upwards and moving away from all Exponential Moving Average (EMA) lines. We anticipate that the upward momentum will drive it towards the subsequent resistance level of 1,527 as the bulls regain their strength.

“Meanwhile, the immediate support level is at 1,500, followed by 1,477. As such, we expect the FBM KLCI to hover within the 1,508 to 1,527 range,” he told Bernama.

For the week just ended, the local bourse was influenced by the outcome of the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting as well as China’s Evergrande Group court order, which resulted in profittaking activities in selected heavyweights.

The FOMC meeting decided to keep the interest rate unchanged at 5.5 per cent, affirming that the US interest rate is at its peak.

However, investors remained cautious as the US Federal Reserve commented that a March rate cut is unlikely.

Hence, the market is pricing in rate cuts that may happen in the second half of 2024 and will monitor closely the corporate earnings announcements and the employment report later today,” Thong added.

On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the key index rose 10.30 points to 1,516.18 from 1,506.28 previously.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 15.94 points to 11,248.73, the FBMT 100 Index increased 30.64 points to 10,916.02, the FBM 70 Index declined 137.01 points to 15,146.20, the FBM Emas Shariah Index slipped 20.83 points to 11,268.83, and the FBM ACE Index fell 152.92 points to 4,689.21.