BURSA MALAYSIA EXPECTED TO TRADE CAUTIOUSLY NEXT WEEK

By Siti Radziah Hamzah

KUALA LUMPUR, July 20 (Bernama) -- Volatility in Bursa Malaysia and regional markets will likely continue, with the local market trading cautiously next week as investors monitor global developments, particularly the global tech rout and optimism surrounding the US Federal Reserve's (Fed) potential rate cut.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said that for Bursa Malaysia, the brokerage maintains a positive long-term outlook, supported by attractive valuations, robust corporate earnings, and improving economic conditions.

"Hence, we expect the buying momentum in blue chips to continue into the following week," he told Bernama.

Rakuten Trade expects the index to hover within the 1,625–1,655 range for next week with immediate support levels at 1,620 followed by 1,610.

The FBM KLCI continued its rally, surpassing the 1,632 mark for the first time in three years in mid-week of the week just ended. 

"With the benchmark index reaching a new 52-week high, bullish momentum is likely to persist in the short to mid-term. We anticipate this momentum will propel the key index toward the next resistance level of 1,655, and a breakthrough above this level could indicate further upward movement," said Thong.

On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the FBM KLCI surged 17.49 points to 1,636.55 from last week's 1,619.06. 

During the week, the market moved in rangebound trading, tracking the volatility in the global market on prospects of the Fed’s interest cuts and ended the week amid a global tech outage that roiled business and flights around the globe.  

Bursa Malaysia's FBM KLCI index value feed experienced service disruption after the lunch break on Friday. All FTSE indices and FBM KLCI index value feed on Bursa Malaysia resumed at 3.21 pm.

On Friday, the Department of Statistics Malaysia announced that the country’s economy is estimated to have expanded by 5.8 per cent in the second quarter of 2024, up from 4.2 per cent in the previous quarter, and the highest since the  7.4 per cent growth in the fourth quarter of 2022. 

For the first half of 2024, Malaysia's gross domestic product rose by 5.0 per cent versus 4.1 per cent a year ago.

On Bursa Malaysia's index board, the FBM Emas Index surged 118.56 points to 12,659.26, the FBMT 100 Index jumped 121.80 points to 12,232.42, the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased by 121.90 points to 13,037.10, the FBM 70 Index climbed 154.82 points to 18,828.01, and the FBM ACE Index declined 47.0 points to 5,934.21. 

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index soared 172.67 points to 17,972.78, and the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 3.94 points to 197.02, the Energy Index slid by 8.93 points to 975.59, while the Plantation Index leapt 281.14 points to 7,224.85. 

For the week just ended, turnover swelled to 25.23 billion units valued at RM18.85 billion versus 19.39 billion units valued at RM15.69 billion in the preceding week.

The Main Market volume advanced to 14.21 billion shares worth RM16.42 billion against 11.38 billion shares worth RM13.79 billion a week ago.

Warrants turnover expanded to 6.32 billion units valued at RM2.23 billion from 3.94 billion units valued at RM496.75 million last week. 

The ACE Market volume improved to 4.69 billion shares worth RM1.61 billion from 4.05 billion shares worth RM1.39 billion previously.

-- BERNAMA