Bursa to trade cautiously this week

“There’s improvement in the regional market sentiment.” Thong Pak Leng

PETALING JAYA: Bursa Malaysia is expected to see cautious trading this week due to increasing market volatility, says Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng.

He reckoned that the FBM KLCI is likely to move sideways with an upside bias of between 1,545 and 1,565, with immediate resistance at 1,570 and support at 1,540.

“We are cautiously optimistic about the local market although there’s improvement in the regional market sentiment as profit-taking is likely to set in,” he told Bernama.

As uncertainties continue to dictate sentiment, the index is expected to remain in consolidation mode.

For the holiday-shortened week just-ended, the local bourse was mixed amid the steady performance of regional markets and a decline on Wall Street on heightened concerns over the impact of persistently high inflation.

On a weekly basis, the FBM KLCI rose 4.71 points to end last week at 1,549.12 from 1,544.41 in the previous week.

On the index board, the FBMT100 Index bagged 47.81 points to 10,735.07, the FBM Emas Shariah Index added 60.86 points to 11,529.27, the FBM Emas Index increased 60.57 points to 11,071.37, the FBM ACE added 0.46 of-a-point to 5,343.09, and the FBM 70 improved 120.41 points to 13,177.02.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index climbed 78.52 points to 8,257.80, the Industrial Products and Services Index went up 2.58 points to 199.37, and the Energy Index widened 64.92 points to 852.16.

The Financial Services Index trimmed 141.46 points to 16,534.37, the Healthcare Index shed 30.16 points to 1,980.94, and the Technology Index inched down 2.19 points to 65.69.

Weekly turnover fell to 14.33 billion units valued at Rm9.26bil versus 15.15 billion units valued at Rm11.21bil last week.