KUALA LUMPUR – Bursa Malaysia is expected to trade cautiously with a downside bias in the upcoming week as global market uncertainty remains on investors’ radar, a dealer said.
Bank Islam chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI is expected to linger around 1,450 next week and would continue to remain lacklustre as uncertainties over global economic prospects have heightened.
“The major central banks are seen to be adamant to raise their benchmark interest rates in a bid to ward off inflationary pressures. This effectively would reduce the global liquidity condition,” he said.
The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday increased its interest rate by 75 basis points to between 1.50% and 1.75% after its Federal Open Market Committee meeting.
In that sense, Afzanizam noted that institutional investors are most likely to increase their cash holdings given the volatile market condition.
Yesterday, the FBM KLCI fell 16.03 points to end at 1,456.74 with 726 losers against 267 gainers.
On a weekly basis, the FBM KLCI slipped 37.21 points to end the week at 1,456.74 from 1,493.95 in the previous week.
On the index board, the FBMT100 Index declined 292.34 points to 10,137.01, the FBM Emas Shariah Index dipped 470.75 points to 10,526.49, the FBM Emas Index decreased 335.78 points to 10,397.87, the FBM ACE slipped 300.38 points to 4,833.98, and the FBM 70 weakened 499.17 points to 12,614.41.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index lost 378.42 points to 7,218.23, the Industrial Products and Services Index went down 7.02 points to 186.31 and the Energy Index narrowed by 63.78 points to 719.89.
The Financial Services Index shed 114.29 points to 16,305.84, the Healthcare Index slid 141.43 points to 1,669.81, and the Technology Index inched down 4.76 points to 63.00.
Weekly turnover was higher at 13.95 billion units valued at RM11.06 billion against 11.03 billion units valued at RM7.49 billion last week.
The Main Market volume widened to 8.34 billion shares worth RM9.84 billion from 6.42 billion shares worth RM6.28 billion in the previous week.
Warrants volume went up to 2.64 billion units valued at RM468.76 million versus 1.65 billion units valued at RM291.43 million previously.
The ACE Market volume strengthened to 2.95 billion shares worth RM745.40 million from 2.94 billion shares worth RM916.51 million the week before. – Bernama, June 18, 2022
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