Bursa Malaysia to consolidate, 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 1,730, levels.

Malacca Securities analyst Kenneth Leong said any upside bias is likely to be kept at the 1,730 level with the US non-farm payroll figures revealed on Friday being positive.

Leong told Bernama the market focus would also be now on the Federal Reserve ( Fed) policy meeting on March 14 to 15 and expects interest rates to be increased this month.

For the week just ended, Bursa Malaysia ended on an uptrend on Monday and Friday, but remained in the red for the rest of week on a lack of impetus.

Leong said it traded sideways in cautious mode as investors awaited clues on the possible US interest rate hike.

On a week-to-week basis, the FBM KLCI rose 9.2 points to 1,717.58 from 1,708.38 last Friday.

The FBM Emas Index gained 78.03 points to 12,135.62, the FBMT 100 Index gained 62.06 points to 11,798.37 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index improved 60.91 points to 12,559.68.

On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index surged 111.51 points to 15,400.07, the Industrial Index rose 6.79 points to 3,243.24, while the Plantation Index shed 13.32 points to 8,081.19 Weekly turnover expanded to 16.23 billion units worth RM13.66 billion from 14.89 billion units worth RM13.07 billion.

Main Market volume marginally narrowed to 10.3 billion shares valued at RM13.04 billion against 10.76 billion shares valued at RM12.42 billion last Friday.

Warrant turnover rose to 1.25 billion units worth RM155.47 million from 1.19 billion units worth RM162.86 million.

The ACE Market declined to 2.67 billion shares worth RM459.75 million from 2.91 billion shares worth RM481.58 million. — Bernama