Market expected to trade sideways

BURSA Malaysia is expected to trade sideways this week, with the benchmark index moving between 1,770 and 1,780 points due to mixed market sentiments from both local and external factors.

Affin Hwang Investment Bank vice-president and head of retail research Datuk Nazri Khan Adam Khan said the market would remain cautious following tension in the Korean peninsula which would continue to take centrestage and weighed on market sentiment.

He said regional bourses were also expected to be defensive after the European Central Bank's meeting hinted it might taper stimulus plan in October.

On another note, the market would also keep a cautious eye on Hurricane Irma to weigh its impact on Wall Street sentiment.

For the week just ended, the benchmark FBM KLCI gained 6.74 points to 1,779.9 from 1,773.16.

On a weekly basis, the FBM Emas Index was 79.21 points higher at 12,689.28 and the FBMT 100 Index rose 75.86 points to 12,357.52.

The FBM Emas Syariah Index advanced 137.05 points to 12,886.14, the FBM 70 jumped 202.45 points to 15,262.29 and the FBM Ace gained 36.84 points to 6,649.58.

On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index was down by 45.78 points to 16,726.53, but the WEEKLY FBM KLCI Industrial Index edged up 7.58 points to 3,208.72, and the Plantation Index added 41.75 points to 7,890.21.

Total turnover increased to 10.34 billion units valued at RM8.66bil from 5.06 billion units valued at RM5.69bil.

Main Market volume widened to 6.62 billion shares worth RM7.98bil from 3.13 billion shares valued at RM5.3bil.

Warrants volume rose to 633.87 million units worth RM81.02mil from 522.86 million units valued at RM69.06mil. The Ace Market turnover jumped to 3.01 billion shares valued at RM590.80mil from 1.39 billion shares valued at RM317.30mil. – Bernama KUALA LUMPUR

THE three-month Kuala Lumpur Interbank Offered Rate (Klibor) futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives is likely to remain quiet this week due to the absence of market catalysts.

For the holiday-shortened week, the market was untraded with open interest remaining at nil. KUALA LUMPUR

The ringgit is expected to trade firmer this week on easing geopolitical tensions in North Korea, amid conducive domestic monetary condition that is supportive of growth, which saw the ringgit climb to a ten-month high on Thursday at RM4.1920/1970 against the US dollar from RM4.2690/2720 in the previous week.

BONUS / RIGHTS ISSUES

On a Friday-to-Wednesday basis, September 2017, October 2017, November 2017 and December 2017 stood at 96.53, 96.51, 96.50 and 96.48 respectively.

The underlying three-month KLIBOR on the cash market remained at 3.43% on Friday. The market was closed on Thursday and Friday last week and on Monday this week for a special public holiday. – Bernama

MONEY MARKET

Based on a Friday-to-Wednesday basis, the local note strengthened versus the Singapore dollar to 3.1342/1398 from 3.1482/1514 but depreciated against the yen to 3.8919/8977 from 3.8837/8882.

The ringgit rose against the British pound to 5.5129/5203 from 5.5168/5220 and appreciated against the euro to 5.0551/0624 from 5.1010/1063. – Bernama