Bursa to remain quiet in first trading week of Lunar New Year

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia is likely to remain quiet this week following the Chinese New Year holiday, said an analyst.

SPI Asset Management managing partner Stephen Innes said investors would need to navigate several important data points, with the main one being the US consumer price index to be released on Tuesday.

“Barring any significantly hotter inflation surprise, Bursa Malaysia should remain supported by the outlook for US Federal Reserve interest rate cuts later in the year, as well as ongoing market and economic support by Chinese policymakers,” he told Bernama.

Innes noted that the Bank of Thailand hinted at possible rate cuts this week, raising questions about how far Bank Negara

Malaysia may be from signalling a rate cut bias.

“This would be ostensibly positive for local markets. Unless there are any surprises in the US inflation data and given the absence of the China influence due to the Chinese New Year, I expect Bursa Malaysia to be somewhat range-bound with a slight bullish bias next week,” he said.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng also expects the market to be quiet due to the holiday period and fewer trading sessions.

“However, we believe the surge in crude oil price provides trading opportunity for energy stocks,” he told Bernama.

Rakuten Trade projected the

FTSE Bursa Malaysia (FBM KLCI) to hover within the 1,509-1,527 range this week, with immediate resistance at 1,527 and support at 1,500 followed by 1,477.

On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the key index declined 4.30 points to 1,512.28 from 1,516.18 previously.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index shed 3.71 points to 11,245.02, the FBMT 100 Index decreased 11.51 points to 10,904.51, the FBM 70 Index rose 64.13 points to 15,210.33, the FBM Emas Shariah Index advanced 17.35 points to 11,286.18, and the FBM ACE Index gained 133.0 points to 4,822.21.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index dipped 123.96 points to 16,880.97, the Energy Index bagged 2.41 points to 880.96, the Plantation Index added 22.95 points to 7,192.16, and the

Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.82 of-a-point to 172.69.

Weekly turnover went down to 14.46 billion units worth RM9.47 billion from 15.31 billion units worth RM11.47 billion in the preceding week.

The Main Market volume contracted to 8.36 billion shares worth RM8.35 billion from 10.09 billion shares worth RM10.39 billion in the previous week.

Warrants turnover expanded to 3.10 billion units valued at RM479.43 billion versus 2.47 billion units valued at RM384.69 million last week.

The ACE Market volume increased to 2.92 billion shares worth RM629.21 billion from 2.65 billion shares worth RM685.19 million previously. — Bernama