KUALA LUMPUR, July 14 — Buying momentum on Bursa Malaysia is expected to continue next week, in line with the global equities on lack of worries over trade war between the United States and China.
Hermana Capital Bhd Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer Datuk Nazri Khan Adam Khan said the positive sentiment would restore investors’ risk appetite.
On the local front, he said the reduction of foreign fund outflow from the country would also support the market next week.
“For the past three months, the outflow was quite significant. The momentum, however, has slowed down on the back of steadier oil prices that helped push oil and gas and other related stocks,” he told Bernama.
Furthermore, Nazri Khan said prospects for inflow of foreign direct investment in the second half of the year would also support sentiment in the market.
He said with the new government being more transparent and efficient, coupled with the stable financial and banking ecosystem following the unchanged overnight policy rate (OPR) by the central bank, they would spur higher demand.
“I don’t see why they (foreign investors) should stay on the sideline anymore,” he added.
For the week just ended, the local bourse trended broadly higher, tracking regional peers, influenced by the trade war sentiment.
On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was 58.07 points firmer at 1,721.93 from 1,663.89 in the previous week.
The FBM Emas Index surged 347.22 points to 12,146.21 and the FBMT100 Index soared 352.79 points to 11,948.03.
The FBM 70 climbed 248.92 points to 14,783.6, the FBM Emas Shariah Index bagged 275.46 points to 12,238.76, and the FBM Ace advanced 117.16 points to 5,351.34.
On a sectoral basis, the Plantation Index was 91.16 points higher at 7,512.54 and the Industrial Index rose 91.94 points at 3,179.53.
The Finance Index jumped 693.48 points to 17,034.38, as investors reacted positively to Bank Negara Malaysia’s decision to keep the OPR unchanged at 3.25 per cent during its meeting on Wednesday.
Weekly turnover widened to 12.04 billion units valued at RM11.66 billion from 10.05 billion units worth RM8.36 billion previously.
Main market volume expanded to 7.25 billion shares valued at RM10.37 billion from 5.99 billion shares worth RM7.01 billion.
Warrants turnover ballooned to 3.43 billion units valued at RM1 billion from 2.64 billion units worth RM817.89 million in the previous week.
The ACE market volume, however, reduced slightly to 1.35 billion shares valued at RM282.3 million from 1.40 billion shares worth RM290.52 million. — Bernama
