BELOW are excerpts of viewpoints from two selected research houses on what investors can expect in the day ahead:
Inter-Pacific Research
Malaysian equities retreated further and slid below the psychological 1,450 level ahead of the upcoming 15th General Election (GE15) on Saturday (Nov 19).
However, the key index managed to recoup most of its intraday losses towards the end of the session on mild buying support by local institutions.
Conditions in the broader market were also relatively benign and market breadth remained on the negative side. Meanwhile, market interest continues to thin with traded volumes slipping below the 2.5 billion shares mark.
We see the near-term outlook remaining soft as market players continue to shy away from the market as they await for the outcome of the GE15. As the election outcome is still difficult to ascertain, this could keep market players on the sidelines for the time being.
With the mostly cautious trend still dominating sentiments, the downside bias is also likely to be sustained with the key index possibly drifting further away from the 1,450-level due to the thin buying support.
This may lead the key index to the next support at 1,440 points. Thereafter, the support is lowered to 1,433 points while the 1,450 level is the immediate hurdle, followed by the 1,453 level.
Malacca Securities Research
The FBM KLCI ended on a downbeat note amid weakness in selected banking and plantation heavyweights as the market sentiment remained cautious ahead of the GE15.
With the softer market performance on Wall Street, we reckon that the market tone may stay tepid at least for the near term as the key focus is shifted towards the outcome of the GE15 where it is still uncertain which party is having the lead at this juncture.
Commodities-wise, Brent crude price hovered above the US$92/barrel mark while crude palm oil (CPO) price declined below RM4,000/metric tonne.
The FBM KLCI dipped for the third straight session, closing below its daily EMA9 level. Technical indicators, however, remained positive as the MACD Histogram extended a positive bar while the RSI hovered above 50.
The key index may hover between its resistance at 1,480-1,500 and the support at 1,420-1,430 over the near term. – Nov 17, 2022
