KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 14 — Bursa Malaysia is set to trade in a tight range with an upward bias next week, as investors digest positive progress in the US-Sino trade deal and the UK election while keeping an eye on a slew of key economic data to be released in the coming days.
Hopes over a US-China trade deal rose after US President Donald Trump tweeted Thursday: “Getting VERY close to a BIG DEAL with China. They want it, and so do we!”
Inter-Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd head of research Pong Teng Siew said following this, the market was optimistic that the trade war would not get any worse.
This was especially after reports that the US had agreed to the terms of a “phase one” trade deal with China, hence averting a new round of tariffs on US$160 billion of Chinese imports that was slated to take effect tomorrow (Sunday).
Negotiators for the US and China were reported to have been working for weeks to finalise the “phase one” trade deal.
Pong said the US’ final third-quarter (Q3) gross domestic product (GDP) data to be released next week might have only a slight impact on the market, unless something bad happened.
The Commerce Department recently reported that the US’ GDP increased at a 3.4 per cent annualised rate in its third reading of Q3 GDP growth, revised up from second reading of 2.1 per cent and first reading of 1.9 per cent.
In addition, the market is also expecting a flurry of flash Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) updates from the US and a few other countries.
The UK will also announce its final Q3 GDP next week, while the Bank of England is expected to leave interest rates unchanged next week, in line with the Federal Reserve’s move recently.
Locally, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) will release inflation data for November on Dec 20.
DOSM previously reported that Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased 1.1 per cent to 122.0 in October 2019 against 120.7 in the same month of the preceding year.
United Overseas Bank (Malaysia) Bhd recently said it expected inflation to hover at around 1.1 to 1.3 per cent in November and December, before edging up above 2.0 per cent in 2020.
This leaves the average full-year inflation at 0.8 per cent in 2019.
Pong said there might be fewer investors and fund managers in the market as they would be away for the year-end holidays.
He said the market also saw a lack of window-dressing activities as investors were seen searching for a push factors.
“It’s very late in the year to start a window-dressing exercise now. Window-dressing usually is very strong and pronounced from around middle of November, but we didn’t see that.
“Maybe we need to wait for a last-minute push at the end of the year to see a prominent window-dressing exercise,” he told Bernama.
For the week just ended, the market was mostly higher, after the Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged as expected at its policy meeting on Wednesday and indicated the rates would remain on hold throughout 2020.
Petronas-linked shares were in the spotlight during the week just ended as fund managers continuously sought out the counters over the national oil company’s prospect after selling some stakes in its subsidiaries.
Construction counters such as Ekovest and Iskandar Waterfront City received a boost after news that IWH-CREC, a joint-venture between Iskandar Waterfront Holdings Sdn Bhd (IWH) and China Railway Group Ltd (CREC), would hold a signing ceremony for the Bandar Malaysia development next Tuesday.
On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia (FBM) KLCI rose 2.72 points to 1,571.16 from 1,568.44 previously.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index increased 54.01 points to 11,187.58, the FBMT 100 Index advanced 46.10 points to 10,985.80, the FBM Emas Shariah Index surged 111.00 points to 11,834.97, the FBM 70 jumped 169.92 points to 14,019.00 and the FBM Ace Index expanded 108.60 points to 4,992.93.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index added 30.83 points to 15,253.04 and the Industrial Products and Services Index gained 2.12 points to 152.14, while the Plantation Index was 135.10 points higher at 7,496.41.
Weekly turnover grew to 13.08 billion units worth RM9.47 billion from 11.39 billion units worth RM8.09 billion the previous week.
Main Market volume improved to 9.43 billion units valued at RM8.69 million versus 7.45 billion units valued at RM7.09 billion.
Warrants turnover went up to 1.45 billion units worth RM228.34 million against 1.27 billion units worth RM249.43 million previously.
The ACE Market volume, however, declined to 1.85 billion units valued at RM549.65 million from 2.63 billion units worth RM748.41 million. — Bernama
