FBM KLCI to trend lower

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KUALA LUMPUR: The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) is likely to trend lower, weighed down by the anticipated weakness in the small-cap index, said an analyst.

Inter-Pacific Research Sdn Bhd head of Research Pong Teng Siew said the small-cap stocks had been excessively traded due to speculative activities, which will yield a slower trading period moving forward.

“The small-caps will continue to fall.

Last Thursday’s trading volume spiked to 3.42 billion, which was unusually high.

It has never been this high since April.

“So, this turned out to be three to four months’ high for the small-cap  index.

They (small-caps) might generally trend lower in the next three months,” he told Bernama.

Pong pointed out that a number of inferences would come from the global economy ahead of the year-end.

“A lot of things suggest that investors are looking at how strong the US economy is and that might set the pace on consumption spending and the strength of Malaysian export especially for electronics,” he added.

On a weekly basis, the key benchmark FBM KLCI finished at 1,682.59, up 20.7 points from 1,661.89 last Friday.

The FBM Emas Index advanced 84.05 points to 11,681.18, the FBMT100 Index rose 98.84 points to 11,366.22, the FBM Emas Shariah gained 67.76 points to 12,596.29, the FBM 70 went up 38.66 points to 12,878.23, while the FBM Ace surged 238.21 points to 6,676.32.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index put on 56.35 points to 14,134.62, the Plantation Index jumped 101.17 points to 7,599.69, while the Industrial Index added 2.94 points to 3,296.65.

Weekly turnover increased to 13.13 billion units valued at RM10.72 billion against 12.94 billion units valued at RM9.85 billion last week.

Main market volume rose to 7.77 billion units worth RM9.5 billion against last Friday’s 7.42 billion units worth RM8.66 billion.

Warrant turnover shrank to 893.34 million units worth RM128.99 million from  1.21 billion units worth RM177.39 million last week.

The ACE market expanded to 4.45 billion units worth RM1.09 billion from  4.30 billion units worth RM1 billion previously. — Bernama