Bursa Malaysia seen remaining sideways on cautious sentiment

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia is expected to keep to the sideways amid cautious market sentiment, mainly from the external front, but the key index will stay above the psychological level of 1,500, dealers said.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid expects the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) to move in a tight range of between 1,535 and 1,545.

He said the local bourse would continue to experience fluctuations as the date for the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting draws nearer.

“It looks like the US Fed is likely to maintain its hawkish stance should the non-farm payroll data and the unemployment numbers in December showed further improvement,” he told Bernama. “If that would be the case, then the labour market is deemed to be in a tight condition whereby employers are having a tough time looking for employees, which would translate into higher wages in order to lure them to work. As such, one shall expect erratic movements in equity prices globally.”

The FOMC's first meeting for the year is scheduled on Jan 2526, while Bank Negara Malaysia's first Monetary Policy Committee meeting for 2022 will be held on Jan 19-20.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vicepresident of equity research Thong Pak Leng is also anticipating the FBM KLCI to remain trending sideways with immediate support at 1,530 and resistance at 1,570.

“I think the stamp duty cap at RM1,000 will eventually draw back investors, but overall the sentiment both locally and regionally is still not very stable. There is still upside but have to be cautious,” he said.

The stamp duty for the trading of shares has been raised to 0.15 per cent from 0.1 per cent but has been capped at RM1,000, beginning Jan 1, 2022 until Dec 31, 2026.

For the week just ended, the local bourse had been impacted by profit-taking activities following the year-end window dressing activities, worries over new coronavirus variants, US Treasury yields and its bond tapering moves, as well as firmer crude oil and crude palm oil (CPO) prices.

On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the FBM KLCI fell 24.42 points to end the week at 1,543.11 from 1,567.53 previously.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was up 91.37 points to 11,217.42, the FBMT100 Index erased 111.49 points to 10,903.64, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index lost 203.62 points to 12,059.48. — Bernama