KUALA LUMPUR, July 17 — The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) is anticipated to trade range-bound next week between 1,500 and 1,530 on continuation of rotational play due to lack of clear catalyst.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd head of equity sales Vincent Lau said the market would likely see more bargain hunting as it almost touched the support level of 1,500 during the week.
“Due to the current level at 1,522.48 yesterday, I think the market have found its bottom level, and buying interest is likely to emerge where investors will buy on weakness after profit-taking.
“Besides that, markets will be on the lookout for two upcoming listings by CTOS Digital Bhd on the Main Market on July 19 and Haily Group Bhd (July 21) on the Ace Market,” he told Bernama.
Meanwhile Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said next week would be a holiday-shortened week and not much trading activity is expected.
“However, investors will continue to keep an eye on Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 cases which stood above 10,000 cases for four consecutive days while the daily number of doses administered remained above 400,000 from Monday to Thursday this week.
“All in all we expect the FBM KLCI to trade within a range of 1,515 to 1,535 points next week,” he said.
During the week just ended, the equity market was traded slightly higher on optimism of the improved Covid-19 vaccination rate. However, concerns of rising Covid-19 infection rates and expectation of business closure also weigh on sentiment.
The FBM KLCI increased 1.91 points to end the week at 1,522.48 from 1,520.58 a week earlier.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 46.46 points firmer at 11,116.54, the FBMT 100 Index increased 42.41 points to 10,824.33 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 74.13 points to 12,184.91.
The FBM Ace advanced 65.53 points to 7,240.57, and the FBM 70 jumped 169.60 points to 14,494.53.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 1.08 points to 188.60, but the Financial Services Index gave up 59.76 points to 14,895.87 and the Plantation Index lost 97.67 points to 6,192.76.
The Energy Index trimmed 17.16 points to 767.05, the Healthcare Index earned 51.21 points to 2,856.60 and the Technology Index gained 3.60 points to 85.02.
Weekly turnover decreased to 22.77 billion units valued at RM14.31 billion from 27.38 billion units worth RM16.38 billion in the previous week.
Main Market volume narrowed to 13.32 billion shares worth RM11.04 billion from last week’s 18.30 billion shares worth RM13.48 billion.
Warrants volume went up slightly to 1.15 billion units valued at RM134.19 million from 1.14 billion units worth RM134.57 million previously.
The Ace Market volume expanded to 8.28 billion shares worth RM3.13 billion versus 6.89 billion shares valued at RM2.78 billion last week. — Bernama
