KUALA LUMPUR, June 2 ― Bursa Malaysia is expected to trend higher with the key index moving towards the 1,750-1,770 level next week.

Putra Business School Business Development Senior Lecturer and Manager Dr Ahmed Razman Abdul Latiff told Bernama today that the market could reach that level after it retreated to the 1,750 level this week on heavy selling in heavyweight stocks.

"The heavy selling was due to overreaction to the RM1 trillion debt level announcement by the government earlier in the week,” he said.

There would be an accommodative monetary policy and improvement in consumer sentiment, Ahmed Razman said.

"Investors will also be concerned over global market developments as there is a possibility of another round of trade wars between the US and various countries with regards to stiff tariffs imposed on steel and aluminium, as well as the update on the Federal Reserve interest rate policy,” he added.

For the week just-ended, Bursa Malaysia closed mostly mixed on sustained selling momentum in selected heavyweights, as well as situational counters.

Bursa Malaysia started off the first day of trading easier, in line with regional trends, and closed lower on Wednesday on foreign selling, a day after the Wesak Day public holiday.

Meanwhile, on Thursday and Friday, the bourse rebounded to the positive territory after the Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng painted a clearer picture on measures to improve the economy through government policies, among them, creating a business friendly environment for investors from all backgrounds and promote investment influx from India.

On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was 41.02 points lower at 1,756.38 from 1,797.4.

The FBM Emas Index increased 304.88 points to 12,235.9, the FBMT100 Index rose 294.72 points to 12,053.96, the FBM 70 gained 398.46 points to 14,442.16, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index improved 388.09 points to 12,220.21.

The FBM Ace advanced 140.06 points to 5,049.55.

On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index rose 262.53 points to 17,617.03, the Industrial Index went up 48.59 points to 3,164.82 and the Plantation Index improved 143.85 points to 7,700.26.

Weekly turnover widened to 13.32 billion units worth RM18.79 billion from 12.90 billion units worth RM15.95 billion.

Main market volume increased to 9.08 billion shares worth RM18.13 billion from 8.17 billion shares worth RM15.19 billion.

Warrants turnover declined to 2.85 billion units valued at RM464.73 million versus 3.07 billion units valued at RM519.62 million.

The ACE market volume reduced to 1.38 billion shares worth RM200.66 million from 1.55 billion shares worth RM233.17 million. ― Bernama