KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 19 — Bursa Malaysia is expected to be on consolidation mode with an upward bias to trade between 1,640 to 1,660 points next week, a dealer said.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said looking ahead for next week, trading activities may take a breather especially before the Christmas public holiday on Friday.

The traders will look into Malaysia’s inflation data for the month of November to be released next Wednesday for market direction, he noted.

Meanwhile, Inter-Pacific Asset Management Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Datuk Dr Nazri Khan Adam Khan told Bernama that Bursa Malaysia is on bullish consolidation mode and expected to rebound probably middle of next week after going through technical consolidation.

"Sentiment surrounding the market remained positive with Wall Street surprisingly at an all-time high on the back of imminent US$900 stimulus package, the Federal Reserve keeping the US interest rate low for a longer time, as well as Covid-19 vaccine roll-out.

"On the local front, the political noise has subdued after the passing of Budget 2021 coupled with high commodity prices such as crude oil and crude palm oil. This would help to lift the confidence for our stock market amid the year-end window dressing,” he said.

He added that infrastructure-linked stocks, banks, construction, property and telco are expected to remain top picks for traders for the remaining days of 2020.

For the week-just-ended, Bursa Malaysia snapped its five-day winning streak on Monday but rebounded on Tuesday and Wednesday after Budget 2021 passed the third reading in Parliament.

However, it succumbed to profit-taking and technical correction on Thursday and Friday while the financial sector and glove manufacturer remained in active trading to set the market tone.

Overall, the benchmark FBM KLCI slipped 32.09 points to 1,652.49 from 1,684.58 registered a week earlier.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index fell 195.22 points to 11,890.49, the FBMT 100 Index declined 198.69 points to 11,650.05, the FBM 70 declined 151.41 points to 15,218.60, the FBM ACE Index dropped 623.45 points to 10,447.65 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index reduced 97.06 points to 13,334.47.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index tumbled 621.13 points to 15,425.0, the Plantation Index was 62.29 points lower at 7,349.80, and the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 1.98 points to 175.69.

The Energy Index shed 40.27 points to 908.05, the Healthcare Index gave up 120.18 points to 3,702.31, while the Technology Index edged up 1.47 points to 67.87.

Weekly turnover decreased to 50.37 billion units worth RM26.15 billion from 57.76 billion units worth RM31.32 billion last week.

Main Market volume shrank to 32.40 billion shares valued at RM22.03 billion versus 35.93 billion shares valued at RM25.03 billion previously.

Warrants turnover expanded to 4.97 billion units worth RM804.71 million from 4.74 billion units worth RM821.83 million in the previous week.

The ACE Market volume dropped to 13.04 billion shares valued at RM3.31 billion from 17.08 billion shares valued at RM5.45 billion previously. — Bernama