KUALA LUMPUR: The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) is anticipated to trend higher this week within the range of 1,415-1,430 points in a holiday-shortened trading period, a dealer said.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the outlook of the local equity market is expected to remain steady due to undemanding valuations and improving economic conditions.
“We are also positive on local equities as the consensus remains confident that blue chips will perform strongly in the coming corporate earnings season.
“Additionally, we still see some upside in the benchmark index as it is currently trading at around 13 times the price-to-earnings ratio compared with its five-year average of around 18 times,” he told Bernama.
Thong said from a technical point of view, the immediate resistance is spotted at 1,440 and support at 1,415, followed by 1,400.
Bursa Malaysia bucked the regional trend on Friday to end marginally lower after a shortened trading week due to the Raya break, pushed down by the selling of financial services and plantation blue chips.
However, regional indices trended higher following strong gains on Wall Street overnight.
Bursa Malaysia Bhd and its subsidiaries were closed on April 21 (Friday) and April 24 (Monday) in conjunction with the Hari Raya Aidilfitri holidays.
On a Friday-to-Thursday basis, the FBM KLCI declined 6.15 points to end at 1,415.96 from the previous week’s 1,422.11.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index fell 54.57 points to 10,396.39, the FBMT 100 Index lost 55.49 points to 10,080.22 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 38.53 points to 10,736.79.
The FBM 70 Index dropped 122.64 points to 13,522.58 while the FBM ACE Index rose 24.89 points to 5,368.38.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index slipped 146.33 points to 15,519.53, the Energy Index shed 7.62 points to 847.37, the Industrial Products and Services Index trimmed 1.71 points to 171.45 and the Plantation Index ticked down 16.14 points to 6,817.38.
Weekly turnover was weaker at 10.26 billion units worth RM6.15 billion versus 12.02 billion units worth RM6.96 billion the previous week.
The Main Market volume fell to 6.90 billion shares valued at RM5.21 billion against 8.10 billion shares valued at RM5.76 billion in the previous week.
Warrant turnover shrank to 1.05 billion units worth RM185.51 million from 1.30 billion units worth RM191.82 million previously.
The ACE Market volume dropped to 2.31 billion shares worth RM858.61 million from 2.63 billion shares worth RM1.01 billion.
Bursa Malaysia Bhd and its subsidiaries will be closed on May 1 (Monday) and May 4 (Thursday) in conjunction with the Labour Day and Wesak Day holidays respectively. – BERNAMA
