KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 26 — Bursa Malaysia is likely to trade within a tight range of between 1,560 and 1,580 next week, with the key index treading water ahead of the two-day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting starting Oct 29.
While market participants are still awaiting more investment direction, the FOMC meeting would be helpful to provide market leads to the US market, which indirectly gives more clarity to the local market, said Inter-Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd head of research Pong Teng Siew.
“Apart from that, locally there are some anticipations from the corporate earnings season, when companies would announce their third quarter ended Sept 30, 2019 results in November, especially past the middle of the month onwards.
“We would get more leads from there. But next week is still too early as not many results would be coming in yet, so next week the index would still be treading water, not moving very much in either direction,” he told Bernama.
Meanwhile, Phillip Capital Management senior vice-president (investment) Datuk Dr Nazri Khan Adam Khan expected the domestic market to remain sluggish, as the domestic investment activity would likely be dampened by the global growth slowdown and continuing uncertainties over the Sino-US trade feud, Brexit deal and the increased geopolitical tension in Hong Kong.
“Subdued inflation and moderate local economic activity also suggest the likelihood of another key interest rate cut by the Bank Negara Malaysia at its final (Monetary Policy Committee) meeting for the year on Nov 5,” he said.
Technically, Nazri Khan said the immediate support was set at 1,570 points, followed by the 1,530-point mark.
“Conversely, our immediate resistance is at around 1,600 points and the next resistance is pegged at 1,660 points,” he added.
Bursa Malaysia and its subsidiaries will be closed on Monday, Oct 28, in lieu of the Deepavali public holiday which falls on Oct 27.
On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the FBM KLCI eased 1.15 points to 1,570.0 from 1,571.15 previously.
Trading on the local bourse was mainly in a lacklustre mode due to a lack of fresh market leads while tracking the regional markets’ performance.
The FBM Emas Index retreated 29.29 points to 11,160.45, the FBMT 100 Index fell 33.16 points to 10,971.64 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index shed 2.65 points to 11,798.58.
The FBM 70 dipped 323.19 points to 13,798.58 but the FBM Ace Index increased 87.87 points to 4,871.11.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index declined 128.28 points to 15,146.35, the Industrial Products and Services Index ticked up 0.53 point to 153.09, and the Plantation Index went up 11.18 points to 6,635.91.
Weekly turnover fell to 12.64 billion units valued at RM8.35 billion from 13.96 billion units valued at RM9.91 billion in the previous week.
Main Market volume was lower at 8.06 billion shares worth RM7.31 billion versus 8.83 billion shares worth RM8.82 billion previously.
Warrants turnover was weaker at 1.63 bilion units valued at RM309.57 million against 1.80 billion units valued at RM320.46 million.
The ACE Market volume slipped to 2.94 billion shares worth RM727.25 million from 3.33 billion shares worth RM770.65 million previously. — Bernama
