Weekly Highlights: Bursa Malaysia to continue uptrend on bargain hunting

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KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Ma­laysia is expected to continue its uptrend next week on bargain hunting in selected heavy­weights, including banking and plantation counters.

Jupiter Securities head of research, Pong Teng Siew, said buying on selected heavyweights could push the key FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) to 1,490 level.

“The key index could reclaim its 1,500 level on extended bargain hunting and more announcements related to Eco­nomic Transformation Pro­gramme are expected to be made in September,” he told Bernama here yesterday.

Pong said the local market sentiment would remain posi­tive in line with other regional peers as investors hoped for new stimulus measures from US at the Federal Open Market Com­mittee meeting on Sept 20.

Furthermore, Pong said, interest in plantation- and construction-related counters would further boost market sentiment.

“Plantation stocks should do well as crude palm oil yield is picking up and also in construc­tion as the MY Rapid Transit projects are getting under way,” he said.

Meanwhile, OSK Research head of research, Chris Eng, said the outlook on the global econo­my and the European sovereign debt crisis remained hazy and did not recommend aggressive bottom fishing as yet.

“For September, we stick to our defensive top buys that pos­sess recession-resilient business models and some capacity to re­bound after the recent sell-off,” he said in a research note.

For the week just-ended, Bursa Malaysia started off Septem­ber on a positive note despite a holiday-shortened trading week, mainly boosted by bargain hunting activity. The market was closed for Hari Raya and Merdeka Day celebrations from Tuesday to Thursday.

The key FBM KLCI advanced 29.28 points to close at 1,474.09 from 1,444.81 last Friday.

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia Emas Index surged 202.72 points to 10,074.44, FTSE Bursa Malay­sia Ace Index gained 97.58 points to 3,803.01 and the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Mid 70 Index jumped 259.33 points to 10,971.23.

The Finance Index advanced 264.50 points to 13,849.06, Plan­tation Index increased 161.38 points to 7,402.29 and the In­dustrial Index was 46.20 points higher at 2,729.97.

Weekly volume, which covers only one and a half day of trad­ing, stood at 1.3 billion shares valued at RM3.03 billion, a de­clined from 4.512 billion valued at RM9.577 billion in the previ­ous week.

Main Market turnover fell to 1.03 billion units worth RM2.99 billion from 3.581 billion units worth RM9.46 billion previ­ously.

Warrants turnover shrank to 100.53 million units valued at RM7.76 million from 309.39 mil­lion units valued at RM25.367 million transacted last week.

Volume on the ACE market decreased to 166.42 million units worth RM24.35 million from 513.678 million units worth RM77.890 million last week. — Bernama