Bet­ter trad­ing seen with im­proved sen­ti­ment

The Star Malaysia - StarBiz - - Stocks - KUALA LUMPUR KUALA LUMPUR

BURSA Malaysia is ex­pected to trade slightly bet­ter this week with in­vestors ac­cu­mu­lat­ing se­lected in­dex-linked stocks, amid cau­tious sen­ti­ment which is largely in­flu­enced by ex­ter­nal de­vel­op­ments.

A dealer said the cur­rent bullish sen­ti­ment, spurred by an eas­ing of the US-China trade war ten­sions and a threat­ened mil­i­tary strike by the US on Syria be­ing not im­mi­nent, would con­tinue to fuel risk ap­petite.

“In ad­di­tion, US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump con­sid­er­ing re­join­ing the Trans-Pa­cific Part­ner­ship free-trade deal has sparked re­lief.

“Wall Street’s per­for­mance will be closely mon­i­tored with con­fi­dence seem­ing to pile up ahead of the US cor­po­rate earn­ings sea­son,” he told Ber­nama.

On the lo­cal front, an­other dealer said an up­side bias in small and mid-cap stocks is ex­pected to con­tinue.

He an­tic­i­pated re­ports on Malaysia's un­em­ploy­ment fig­ures and in­fla­tion data to be re­leased this week, would partly con­trib­ute to mar­ket sen­ti­ment.

On a Fri­day-to-Fri­day ba­sis, the FBM KLCI was 31.46 points higher at 1,868.47 from 1,837.01 last week.

The key in­dex moved on an up­ward mo­men­tum and ended al­most at a four-year high on Thurs­day be­fore re­treat­ing on Fri­day as profit tak­ing emerged.

The FBM Emas In­dex surged 353.26 points to 13,129.52, the FBM Emas Shariah In­dex soared 459 points to 13,352.7 and the FBMT100 In­dex in­creased 300.72 points to 12,921.62.

The FBM 70 jumped 651.67 points to KUALA LUMPUR

The three-month Kuala Lumpur In­ter­bank Of­fered Rate (Kli­bor) fu­tures con­tract on Bursa Malaysia De­riv­a­tives is ex­pected to stay quiet this week on a lack of mar­ket cat­a­lysts.

For the week just ended, the mar­ket was ((. ) 0 . 15,819.58 and the FBM Ace climbed 607.13 points to 5,646.13.

On a sec­toral ba­sis, the Fi­nance In­dex chalked up 292.91 points to 18,261.84, the Plan­ta­tion In­dex im­proved 137.78 points to 8,054.53 and the In­dus­trial In­dex rose 22.48 points to 3,220.98.

Weekly turnover ex­panded to 16.59 bil­lion units worth RM12.55bil from 12.49 bil­lion units val­ued at RM10.68bil.

Main Mar­ket vol­ume surged to 10.17 bil­lion units worth RM11.57bil from 7.23 bil­lion units val­ued at RM9.36bil.

War­rants turnover in­creased to 3.42 bil­lion units worth RM449.85mil from 1.3 bil­lion units val­ued at RM945.69mil.

The Ace Mar­ket vol­ume widened to 2.97 bil­lion shares worth RM529.98mil from 2.23 bil­lion shares val­ued at RM363.88mil. — Ber­nama un­traded with open in­ter­est re­main­ing nil.

On a Fri­day-to-Fri­day ba­sis, set­tle­ment prices for spot month April 2018, May 2018, June 2018 and Septem­ber 2018 stood at 96.30, 96.29, 96.27 and 96.27 re­spec­tively.

The un­der­ly­ing three-month Kli­bor was un­changed at 3.69%. — Ber­nama The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI fu­tures con­tract (FKLI) is ex­pected to trend higher this week, track­ing the an­tic­i­pated slightly bet­ter move­ment of the un­der­ly­ing cash mar­ket, a dealer said.

He said sen­ti­ment in the fu­tures mar­ket re­cently which was in­flu­enced by pos­i­tive ex­ter­nal de­vel­op­ments, might con­tinue this week, prompt­ing in­vestors to ac­cu­mu­late po­si­tion. KUALA LUMPUR

Trad­ing in the gold fu­tures con­tract on Bursa Malaysia De­riv­a­tives is ex­pected to be range bound this week with an up­side bias, deal­ers said.

RHB Re­search In­sti­tute was op­ti­mistic and said it was best to stay in long po­si­tions, given that the bullish bias is still there.

The re­search house said the New York Com­mod­ity Ex­change (Comex) Gold de­clined US$18.10 to US$1,341.90 on Fri­day.

“How­ever, there is no change to our pos­i­tive view, as we think the com­mod­ity is merely tak­ing a breather, as this is a nor­mal KUALA LUMPUR

The ring­git’s tra­jec­tory this week is ex­pected to be in­flu­enced by Malaysia's eco­nomic data, as well as US in­ter­est rates.

Both are slated for re­leased this week, deal­ers said.

FXTM Re­search An­a­lyst, Luk­man Otunuga, said with the dol­lar likely to re­main sup­ported by ex­pec­ta­tions of faster US in­ter­est rate hikes this year, emerg­ing mar­ket cur­ren­cies in­clud­ing the ring­git, may feel the heat.

Mean­while, Otunuga said the up­com­ing trad­ing week will of­fer in­vestors a fresh in­sight into the health of Malaysia's econ­omy, with both un­em­ploy­ment fig­ures and in­fla­tion data be­ing re­leased.

Much at­ten­tion will be di­rected to­wards the in­fla­tion fig­ures for any signs of con­sumer prices mov­ing to­wards Bank Ne­gara

On a Fri­day-to-Fri­day ba­sis, April 2018 rose 33.5 points to 1,871, May 2018 in­creased 35 points to 1,867, June 2018 edged up 32 points to 1,863.5 and Septem­ber 2018 im­proved 30.5 points to 1,860.5.

Turnover for the week de­clined to 29,060 lots from the 37,492 lots, while open in­ter­est nar­rowed to 30,334 con­tracts from 34,495 con­tracts pre­vi­ously. The bench­mark FBM KLCI ended the week 31.46 points stronger at 1,868.47 from 1,837.01. — Ber­nama re­ac­tion af­ter the Comex gold price in­creased con­sec­u­tively in the prior four ses­sions and hit its new­est two-week high on April 11. As long as no firm down­side de­vel­op­ment is in sight, the bulls re­main in con­trol of mar­ket sen­ti­ment,” it added.

On a Fri­day-to-Fri­day ba­sis, April 2018 rose to RM167.60 per gramme, while May 2018, June 2018, July 2018 rose 38 ticks each to RM167.90 per gramme re­spec­tively.

Weekly turnover rose to 25 lots worth RM385,200 from 16 lots worth RM266,610, while open in­ter­est widened to 67 con­tracts from 65 con­tracts. — Ber­nama Malaysia’s pro­jected two to three per cent in­fla­tion tar­get for 2018, said Otunuga.

He said with the World Bank rais­ing its fore­cast of Malaysia's eco­nomic growth to 5.4% this year, the ring­git has scope to ap­pre­ci­ate fur­ther.

On a Fri­day-to-Fri­day ba­sis, the lo­cal note fin­ished eas­ier against the green­back at 3.8785/8815 from 3.8680/8720 a week ear­lier.

The ring­git traded lower against a bas­ket of ma­jor cur­ren­cies.

It trimmed against the Sin­ga­pore dol­lar to 2.9573/9603 ver­sus 2.9345/9387 last Fri­day, and fell against the yen to 3.6042/6080 from 3.6035/6076.

The ring­git de­clined vis-a-vis the Bri­tish pound to 5.5393/5451 from 5.4195/4266 and de­pre­ci­ated against the euro to 4.7837/7878 from 4.7352/7413. — Ber­nama

2002 7 (6 5281 83 The crude palm oil (CPO) fu­tures con­tract on Bursa Malaysia De­riv­a­tives is ex­pected to be mixed next week, on sim­i­larly mixed sen­ti­ment sur­round­ing the mar­ket.

In­ter­band Group of Com­pa­nies Se­nior Trader, Jim Teh, said the mar­ket would likely be traded be­tween RM2,350 and RM2,450 a tonne.

He said the de­cline in the Malaysian stock­pile and ex­pec­ta­tions of higher de­mand for palm oil, par­tic­u­larly from Mus­lim coun­tries as the fast­ing month ap­proaches in May, is ex­pected to sup­port the price.

On Tues­day, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) an­nounced that Malaysia's to­tal palm oil stocks in

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KUALA LUMPUR

The Malaysian rub­ber mar­ket is likely to be sta­ble this week on on ex­pec­ta­tions of steady de­mand for the com­mod­ity in the com­ing months, said a dealer.

He said the pos­i­tive sen­ti­ment brought on by a re­cent report on the favourable suppy-de­mand sit­u­a­tion for nat­u­ral rub­ber (NR) is ex­pected to con­tinue sup­port­ing the price of the com­mod­ity.

For the week just-ended, the mar­ket traded mostly mixed in track­ing

7 1

KUALA LUMPUR

The Kuala Lumpur Tin Mar­ket (KLTM) is ex­pected to trade around the cur­rent level of US$21,000 a tonne this week as traders re­main cau­tious on ex­ter­nal de­vel­op­ments, deal­ers said.

On a Fri­day-to-Fri­day ba­sis, the KLTM price was US$20 lower at US$20,980 a tonne from US$21,000 per tonne. March 2018 fell by 6.24% to 2.32 mil­lion tonnes from 2.48 mil­lion tonnes in Fe­bru­ary.

CPO pro­duc­tion in­creased to 1.57 mil­lion tonnes month-on-month from 1.34 mil­lion tonnes pre­vi­ously.

On a Fri­day-to-Fri­day ba­sis, April 2018 fell RM87 to RM2,392 per tonne, May 2018 slipped RM117 to RM2,392 per tonne, June 2018 de­clined RM106 to RM2,399 and July 2018 shed RM98 to RM2,401 per tonne.

Weekly turnover fell to 209,078 lots from 589,683 lots, while open in­ter­est re­duced to 270,126 con­tracts from 282,667 con­tracts.

On the phys­i­cal mar­ket, April South was RM80 lower at RM2,420 per tonne. — Ber­nama the mixed sig­nals from re­gional rub­ber fu­tures mar­kets, as well as crude oil price move­ments.

On a Fri­day-to-Fri­day ba­sis, the Malaysian Rub­ber Board’s noon price for tyre-grade SMR 20 rose 19 sen to 534 sen a kg from 515 sen kg last week, and la­tex-in-bulk eased 2.5 sen to 450.5 sen a kg from 453 sen a kg.

The 5 pm un­of­fi­cial clos­ing price for SMR 20 in­creased 15.5 sen to 531.5 sen a kg from 516 sen a kg, and la­texin-bulk was 7.5 sen lower at 447.5 sen a kg from 455.0 sen a kg. — Ber­nama

On the LME, the tin price fell US$175 to end at US$20,900 a tonne from US$21,075 a tonne a week ear­lier.

Turnover in­creased to 188 tonnes from 177 tonnes.

Mean­while, the price dif­fer­en­tial be­tween the KLTM and LME stood at a pre­mium of US$80 per tonne com­pared with a dis­count of US$75 per tonne pre­vi­ously. — Ber­nama

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