KUALA LUMPUR (May 22): Bursa Malaysia will likely continue to see high volatility in trading next week, with the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) expected to trade in the range of 1,550 to 1,570 points with a downside bias.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said trading activities might be muted or slow in the coming days as it will be another holiday-shortened week. The local bourse will be closed on Wednesday in conjunction with the Wesak Day holiday.
He noted that a majority of public-listed companies would release their corporate earnings for the quarter ended March 31, 2021.
“Even if many companies recorded positive growth in corporate earnings, investors are not likely to take a drastic move to increase their exposure in the equity market as there seems to be no slowdown in the number of daily Covid-19 cases, which has breached 6,000 cases as of late,” he told Bernama.
On the economic data front, Adam said investors in Malaysia will be focusing on April exports data, which will be released next Friday.
“Exports are expected to record another double-digit growth amid a low base effect from last year,” he said.
Bursa Malaysia was traded mostly lower this week amid the highly volatile landscape, as Malaysia recorded high infection numbers and investors were anticipating a possible stricter lockdown imposed by the government to curb the Covid-19 outbreak.
On Friday evening, the government announced that it would tighten the enforcement of the third Movement Control Order by adding restrictions for the economic and social sectors. The decision was made during the National Security Council meeting held earlier in the day.
The FBM KLCI fell 20.35 points to 1,562.17 yesterday from 1,582.52 on the last day of trading in the preceding week (Wednesday).
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 227.01 points weaker at 11,336.03, the FBMT 100 Index decreased 191.75 points to 11,042.22, the FBM Emas Shariah Index contracted 322.37 points to 12,608.03, the FBM 70 lost 439.18 points to 14.536.66, and the FBM ACE fell 321.29 points to 7,624.87.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index reduced 82.54 points to 14,768.0, the Plantation Index eased 174.26 points to 7,899.52, and the Industrial Products and Services Index slipped 9.94 points to 187.30.
The Energy Index shed 51.08 points to 845.92, the Technology Index trimmed 1.87 points to 75.51, and the Healthcare Index went down 49.96 points to 3,137.08.
Weekly turnover surged to 32.44 billion units worth RM16.52 billion against 14.12 billion units worth RM8.36 billion in the previous week.
Main Market volume jumped to 18.69 billion shares valued at RM15.29 billion from 8.62 billion shares worth RM6.87 billion last week.
Warrants volume grew to 1.53 billion units worth RM152.39 million versus 875.38 million units worth RM93.32 million previously.
The ACE Market volume went up to 12.24 billion shares valued at RM4.21 billion from 4.62 billion shares valued at RM1.4 billion in the previous week.
