Bursa Malaysia to consolidate and trend sideways

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia is likely to consolidate and trend sideways, with the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) moving between the 1,700 and 1,720 levels.

Affin Hwang Investment Bank vice- president/ head of Retail Research Datuk Dr Nazri Khan Adam Khana sadsaid tthee marketaet is also expected to be cautious next week after trading quite strongly for the past two weeks.

“The market focus will now be on the Federal Reserve (Fed) policy meeting on March 14 to 15, where there is an increasing chance that US interest rates would be increased in March,” he told Bernama.

Nazri said the technical indicator is also showing a weaker momentum which will result in further market consolidation.

However, he said the market will be cushioned by the good news brought on by Malaysia and Saudi Arabia’s good economic collaboration, plus healthy macro data, with leading economic indicators having shown an increase of 0.9 per cent.

For the week just ended, the local bourse traded sideways in cautious mode as investors awaited US President Donald Trump’s first speech before a joint session of Congress on Wednesday.

The local market was lifted higher on Thursday as investors viewed Trump’s speech positively and took cue from Wall Street which saw trading at record highs.

Bursa Malaysia, however, retreated on Friday to end the week lower on profit taking.

On a week-to-week basis, the FBM KLCI rose 10.03 points to 1,708.38 from 1,698.35 last Friday.

The FBM Emas Index gained 82.08 points to 12,057.59, the FBMT 100 Index gained 83.76 points to 11,736.31 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index jumped 108.51 points to 12,498.77.

On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index surged 160.86 points to 15,288.56, and the Plantation Index improved 24.16 points to 8,094.51, while the Industrial Index slipped 48.83 points to 3,236.45.

Weekly turnover expanded to 14.89 billion units worth RM13.07 billion from 13.88 billion units worth RM 12.59 billion.

Main Market volume widened to 10.76 billion shares valued at RM12.42 billion against 10.12 billion shares valued at RM11.92 billion. Warrant turnover rose to 1.19 billion units worth RM162.86 million from 1.06 billion units worth RM147.99 million.

The ACE Market increased to 2.91 billion shares worth RM481.58 million from 2.35 billion shares worth RM511.03 million. — Bernama