KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices on Bursa Malaysia were likely to trade lower next week on expectations of more selling by local funds, dealers said.
Affin Investment Bank vice president and head of Retail Research Dr Nazri Khan said after the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) recorded an intra-day high of 1,700.55 on Thursday, he expected local institutional funds to do a tactical shift in asset allocation.
“Meanwhile, retailers are expected to trade on the lower liners, casting a downward bias on the bluechip counters,” he told Bernama.
However, Nazri said the local market decline was likely to be minimal with foreign funds supporting it, and local funds as the net sellers.
“The foreign net buying is impressive, totalling RM2.5 billion over the last five days, with most foreign fund inflow ending in core index heavyweights such as Tenaga Nasional, Maybank, CIMB and Genting,” he added.
He said it was amazing to see the sudden 360 degree U-turn by the key index, falling and then rising 60 points on heavy volume of RM2.89 billion in just a few hours after Parliament was dissolved, last Wednesday.
“On the technical front, the FBM KLCI has just hit an all-time intraday high of 1700.55, which suggests the time is now ripe for a quick pullback.
“Hence, for next week, we are pegging 1,680 and 1,660 as the support, with 1,700 as the ultimate resistance level,” Nazri added.
He said regardless of the correction, any pre-General Election weakness was a good buying opportunity, given the huge build-up of local liquidity.
On a Friday to Friday basis, the benchmark FBM KLCI increased 17.02 points to 1,688.65 from 1,671.63 last Friday.
The Finance Index increased 213.75 points to 15,905.67 from 15,691.92 last Friday, while the Industrial Index gained 9.68 points to 2,885.41 from 2,875.73 previously.
The Plantation Index increased 92.50 points to 7,996.39 from 7,903.89 previously, while the FBM Emas Index increased 147.84 points to 11,568.33 from 11,420.49.
The FBMT100 improved 138.21 points to 11,395.65 from 11,257.44, with the FBM Mid 70 increasing 254.11 points to 12,880.05 from 12,625.94 and the FBM Ace Index jumping 19.95 points to 4,028.29 from 4,008.34 last Friday.
Weekly turnover increased to 4.917 billion shares worth RM9.769 billion from last week’s 4.048 billion shares worth RM8.904 billion.
Main market volume was up to 4.21 billion shares worth RM9.663 billion from 3.193 billion shares worth RM8.8 billion previously.
Meanwhile, the ACE market volume fell to 556.779 million units worth RM74.709 million, from 732.953 million units worth RM86.754 million.
Warrants increased to 131.803 million shares valued at RM14.288 million from 113.273 million shares valued at RM9.808 million. — Bernama