KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 5 — Bursa Malaysia is seen to trade lower next week, with the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) to hover between 1,500 and 1,520 as investors will keep their focus on Bank Negara Malaysia’s monetary policy meeting to review the overnight policy rate (OPR).
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said any further OPR cut could pose a downside risk to the banking sector.
“The Bursa Malaysia Finance index which includes the banking sector has so far declined by nearly 20 per cent during the year,” he told Bernama.
He said there would likely be bargain hunting for tech-linked stocks next week, mostly dominated by the retail investors.
“The work from home narrative still works for tech stocks mainly on the Main Board and ACE market,” he said.
The sector has been on a steady increase of about 25 per cent since July this year and analysts reckoned that the sell-offs were healthy correction after many record-breaking highs.
The US Wall Street had on Thursday posted its biggest one-day decline in nearly three months.
The Nasdaq Composite tumbled nearly 4.96 per cent to 11,458.10, the Dow Jones erased 2.78 per cent to 28,292.73 and the S&P declined 3.51 per cent to 3,455.06.
Meanwhile, the local healthcare sector, which has been pretty stable since the Covid-19 lockdown, also experienced selling pressure with companies like Supermax, Kossan Rubber and Top Glove leading the top losers.
Besides the tech stocks, Adam also said there could be speculative play on finance stocks ahead of the OPR meeting.
To recap, the central bank has slashed the OPR four times so far this year for a cumulative 125 basis points reduction.
For the public-holiday shortened week, the FBM KLCI index was traded mostly lower on profit-taking including in healthcare sector.
The market was closed on Monday for the National Day.
On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the FBM KLCI ended 9.35 points easier at 1,515.86 yesterday, compared with 1,525.21 the previous Friday.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index declined 113.28 points to 10,972.30, the FBMT 100 Index shed 116.21 points to 10,770.54 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index went down 156.83 points to 13,009.82.
The FBM 70 contracted 349.21 points to 14,398.18 and the FBM ACE Index reduced 173.22 points to 10,806.05.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index slipped 4.91 points to 12,637.86, but the Plantation Index improved 5.97 points to 7,063.25 and the Technology Index edged up 0.47 of-a-point to 57.26.
The Healthcare Index dipped 365.30 points to 3,857.01 but the Industrial Products and Services Index gained 0.43 of-a-point to 136.93.
Weekly turnover narrowed to 38.44 billion units valued at RM20.48 billion from 57.16 billion units worth RM33.39 billion on Friday last week.
Main Market volume decreased to 21.27 billion shares worth RM16.04 billion from 32.00 billion shares valued at RM25.44 billion.
Warrants turnover slid to 2.26 billion units valued at RM674.15 million versus 3.05 billion units worth RM920.78 million.
The ACE Market volume shrank to 14.88 billion shares worth RM3.76 billion versus 22.05 billion shares valued at RM7.00 billion. — Bernama
