Malaysia shares seen moderately firmer next week

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) is likely to trend moderately higher towards 1,500 level next week, dealers said.

They said the leadership changes in Italy and Greece had raised hopes of a resolution to the eurozone debt crisis.

Affin Investment Bank head of retail research, Dr Nazri Khan, said the local market breadth was expected to be positive with important local sectoral indices such as financials, trading services, technology and small cap indices making a strong comeback after recent declines.

He said in spite of volatility in global markets due to the threat of economic slowdown, the local sentiment would remain resilient and traders should use temporary weakness in the local market to ride out potential year-end rally.

"As for the moment, we are pegging 1,500 and 1,530 as the major resistance while 1,460 and 1,430 as the major support for the local benchmark," he told said.

On downside risk, Nazri said, any new talks of radical overhaul and breakup of the European Union may unsettle investors and create a fresh wave of volatility in global financial markets.

Nazri recommended traders accumulate high-yield, defensive and small-cap stocks in the telco and utilities sectors (such as Yi Lai, Signature, NCB Holding and Century Logistic) which may rebound after undergoing a deep correction in the previous months.

He said Bank Negara Malaysia's decision to maintain the Overnight Policy Rate unchanged at three per cent amid a moderate global growth momentum should also be positive for the local market as it provided more certainty and stability in business funding cost.

On a Friday-to-Friday, the benchmark FBM KLCI declined 8.76 points to 1,468.75.

Bursa Malaysia's Finance Index dropped 132.08 points to 13,152.76, Plantation Index slipped 27.74 points to 7,519.15 and Industrial Index declined 16.81 points to 2,684.89.

The FBM Emas Index slipped 32.82 points to 10,039.33, FBM70 Index increased 10.86 points to 10,853.62, FBM ACE Index increased 68.87 points to 4,268.61 and FBM Top 100 Index decreased 44.12 points to 9,846.52.

Total volume increased to 9.203 billion shares valued at RM6.049 billion from 8.15 billion shares valued at RM7.22 billion last week.

The main market turnover rose to 6.784 billion shares worth RM5.72 billion from 5.76 billion shares worth RM6.91 billion previously.

Warrants slipped to 384.614 million units valued at RM34.419 million from 442 million units valued at RM36.75 million last Friday.

Volume on the ACE market went up to 2.009 billion shares worth RM289.039 million from two billion shares worth RM257.73 million last week.(Bernama)