Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng believed the overall outlook for Malaysian equities would remain stable in the medium-term given their attractive valuations, stronger corporate earnings, and improved economic conditions.
“However, global volatility will also play a major role in determining the local market’s direction,” he told Bernama.
“From a technical point of view, the benchmark index has broken its 1,415 resistance level due to continuous foreign buying, and is expected to test the 1,430 level soon on the back of improved investor sentiment, while support is unchanged at 1,400,” he added.
Meanwhile, Thong said the region’s stock performance ended mixed as investors were cautiously awaiting the outcome of tomorrow’s US Federal Reserve (Fed) meeting.
The Fed is widely expected to raise rates by 25 basis points.
“Despite this, many hold the belief that this could mark the end of the tightening cycle, considering that inflation has been cooling since the previous summer,” he said.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 0.79% or 11.17 points to settle at its intraday high of 1,424.69 from 1,413.52 at Friday’s close.
The market bellwether opened 0.84 of-a-point lower at 1,412.68 this morning and hit a low of 1,412.38 in the early session, before gaining momentum to move in an upward trajectory towards closing.
However, the broader market was negative as decliners outpaced advancers 568 to 368, while 399 counters were unchanged, 958 untraded and 16 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 3.29 billion units worth RM1.78 billion.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank rose 14 sen to RM8.92, CIMB Bank added 5 sen to RM5.35, Tenaga Nasional perked up 35 sen to RM9.46, while Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals were both flat at RM3.98 and RM6.50, respectively.
Of the active counters, Classita Holdings went down 1.5 sen to 15 sen, Malaysian Resources Corp eased 2 sen to 37.5 sen, UEM Sunrise declined 5 sen to 43.5 sen, while both Hong Seng Consolidated and XOX were flat at 8.5 sen and 1.5 sen respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index gained 58.29 points to 10,507.08, the FBMT 100 Index was 64.52 points better at 10,195.89, the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 63.93 points to 10,810.88, the FBM 70 Index climbed 22.81 points to 13,899.1, while the FBM ACE Index slid 9.73 points to 5,319.86.
Sector-wise, the financial services index put on 93.79 points to 15,822.29, the plantation index increased 47.72 points to 7,135.31, the energy index edged up 5.89 points to 823.61, and the industrial products and services index inched up 0.02 of-a-point to 162.88.
The Main Market volume shrank to 2.32 billion units valued at RM1.53 billion from 2.46 billion units valued at RM1.78 billion last Friday.
Warrants turnover expanded to 462.79 million units worth RM63.61 million versus 350.74 million units worth RM48.34 million previously.
The ACE Market volume swelled to 512.28 million shares valued at RM189.02 million compared to 476.36 million shares valued at RM180.59 million last Friday.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 728.96 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (469.39 million); construction (126.12 million); technology (231.79 million); SPAC (nil); financial services (50.94 million); property (418.43 million); plantation (35.62 million); REITs (7.93 million), closed/fund (7,600); energy (121.17 million); healthcare (44.40 million); telecommunications and media (27.13 million); transportation and logistics (17.54 million); and utilities (42.95 million).