KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia is likely to trend higher on the back of better sentiment brought about by the increase in commodities prices.
Affin Hwang Investment Bank vice president/head of Retail Research, Datuk Dr Nazri Khan Adam Khan, said the prices of commodities like rubber, crude palm oil and crude oil had moved up and improving.
“The oil price, which touched above US$50 per barrel after the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) reached a deal to cut production, would contribute positively to the market sentiment, especially on oil- and gas-related stocks,” he told Bernama.
However, he said, the ringgit’s volatility would continue ahead of the Federal Reserve System’s (Fed) policy meeting on Dec 15 and 16 this year, where the US interest rate was expected to be increased by 25 basis points.
“This uncertainty is expected to affect the ringgit and the equity market but the sentiment will normalise once the Fed’s decision is announced,” he said.
On a week-to-week basis, the benchmark FBM KLCI rose 1.7 points to 1,628.96 from 1,627.26 last Friday, FBM Emas Index declined 25.2 points to 11,399.12, FBMT 100 Index fell 12.57 points to 11,131.03 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 67.1 points lower at 11,926.14.
The FBM Ace dipped 128.54 points to 4,778.57 and the FBM 70 dropped 102.59 points to 13,076.40.
On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index rose 91.68 points to 14,288.27, Industrial Index slipped 22.74 points to 3,063.54 and the Plantation Index slid 10.8 points to 7,718.24.
Weekly turnover increased to 7.40 billion units worth RM9.44 billion from the 7.02 billion units worth RM7.53 billion registered last Friday.
Main market volume improved to 5.10 billion shares valued at RM9.09 billion from the 4.64 billion shares valued at RM7.11 billion last week.
Warrant turnover decreased to 1.24 billion units valued at RM210.91 million from 1.29 billion units valued at RM231.49 million last week.
The ACE market advanced to 1.04 billion shares worth RM141.05 million from 1.03 billion shares valued at RM481.07 million last week. — Bernama