By Zarul Effendi Razali & Zufazlin Baharuddin
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 21 (NNN-Bernama) — Bursa Malaysia, the stock exchange of Malaysia, is expected to be muted in the upcoming holiday-shortened trading week despite the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) finally breaking the stubborn 1,500 resistance on Friday, dealers said.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the benchmark index was projected to hover in the 1,490-1,505 region next week.
For this week, he said, the FBM KLCI ended marginally higher on Friday in tandem with the strong regional market performance.
“Regionally, key indices showed some resilience despite a selloff on Wall Street overnight. China and Hong Kong stocks have picked up strength as the People’s Bank of China kept its monetary policy unchanged.
“We foresee the reopening of China’s economy and borders to have a positive economic impact on regional economies and attract US dollar investments into the region, as global investors are concerned about the value of the US equities and US dollar,” he told Bernama.
Another dealer said for next week, the FBM KLCI would also gain some support from several positive catalysts this week, including Bank Negara Malaysia’s decision to maintain the Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) on Thursday.
“As expected, the central bank maintained the OPR at 2.75 per cent, hence signaling more funds may start to look at the stock market,” he said.
On a week-to-week basis, the key index rose 5.3 points to 1,500.33 on Friday against 1,495.03 a week earlier.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index climbed 56.68 points to 10.842.48, the FBM Emas Shariah Index gained 116.90 points to 11,093.62, and the FBMT 100 Index added 51.21 points to 10,533.78.
Meanwhile, the FBM ACE Index increased 100.60 points to 5,556.08 and the FBM 70 Index rose 125.98 points to 13,506.65.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 3.07 points to 188.36 and the Plantation Index trimmed 41.49 points to 6,881.42. The Financial Services Index dropped 86.02 points to 16,535.13 while the Energy Index bagged 22.87 points to 845.81.
Weekly turnover fell to 14.28 billion units worth RM9.63 billion (US$1=RM4.29) against 16.92 billion units worth RM10.77 billion last week.
The Main Market volume shrank to 8.87 billion shares valued at RM7.42 billion from 10.35 billion shares valued at RM8.25 billion a week ago.
Warrants volume slipped to 1.52 billion units worth RM294.96 million from 1.56 billion units worth RM354.78 million previously.
The ACE Market volume declined to 3.88 billion shares worth RM1.91 billion from 5.03 billion shares worth RM2.16 billion last week.
Bursa Malaysia has announced that the stock exchange operator and all its subsidiaries would be closed on Monday and Tuesday next week in conjunction with the Chinese New Year holiday, and business would resume on Wednesday, Jan 25.
— NNN-BERNAMA