By Durratul Ain Ahmad Fuad
KUALA LUMPUR, July 8 (NNN-Bernama) — Bursa Malaysia, the stock exchange of Malaysia, will likely trade better with bargain-hunting activities to take the stage next week amid the cautious mode as investors closely monitor the upcoming US inflation data, speeches from numerous US Federal Reserve (Fed) officials and earnings announcements by US banks.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said that although sentiment was cautious, there would be bargain-hunting activities because valuations of the FBM KLCI were really cheap, and, hence, the expectation of the benchmark index to trend higher.
“For next week, we expect bargain-hunting will prevail given the cheap valuations of the benchmark index, which is trading at 13 times as compared to its five-year average of 17 times.
“Furthermore, buying support from local institutions had been rather apparent. Hence, we reckon the index to show a more positive performance and expect it to hover between the 1,375-1,395 range next week with immediate resistance at 1,400 while support at 1,373,” he told Bernama.
Next week, investors would likely monitor the China consumer price index (CPI) and speeches by Fed officials, namely San Francisco Fed president Mary Daly, Cleveland Fed president Loretta Mester, and Atlanta Fed president Raphael Bostic on July 10, while St Louis Fed president James Bullard would give his speech on July 11.
Besides, investors would also look into the US June CPI report on July 12, the China trade on July 13, as well as earnings announcements by US banks (SPX500_m: Bank earnings – Wells Fargo, JP Morgan and Citigroup) on July 14.
On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the FBM KLCI edged up 0.99 of a point to finish at 1,377.67 compared with 1,376.68 a week earlier.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased 25.14 points to 10,166.48, the FBMT 100 Index improved 16.32 points to 9,860.32, the FBM Emas Shariah Index added 16.31 points to 10,431.18, the FBM 70 Index rose 61.11 points to 13,445.69, and the FBM ACE Index perked 71.85 points to 5,139.87.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index went up 44.62 points to 15,377.49, the Plantation Index surged 104.28 points to 6,802.93, the Industrial Products and Services Index advanced 1.33 points to 158.25, and the Energy Index was 18.11 points firmer to 792.20.
Weekly turnover increased to 12.19 billion units valued at RM7.66 billion (US$1=RM4.67) from 10.63 billion units valued at RM6.44 billion in the preceding trading week.
The Main Market volume was higher at 8.52 billion shares worth RM6.43 billion compared with 7.57 billion shares worth RM5.49 billion in the previous week.
Warrants turnover widened to 1.36 billion units valued at RM225.95 million versus 868.29 million units valued at RM147.26 million last week.
The ACE Market volume strengthened to 2.25 billion shares worth RM994.16 million from 2.15 billion shares worth RM809.51 million previously.
— NNN-BERNAMA