BELOW are excerpts of viewpoints from two selected research houses on what investors can expect in the day ahead:
Inter-Pacific Research
Although the key index managed to eke-out gains at the start of the week, the broad market conditions are still relatively insipid, largely due to lack of fresh buying interest which left the FBM KLCI to drift.
The recovery in Public Bank’s share price was largely the reason for the key index’s mild upside yesterday.
The broader market was even more subdued with the prevailing low participation from retail players. As a result, market breadth remained negative while traded volumes slipped further to just 2.24 billion shares.
There is no change to Bursa Malaysia’s immediate outlook with the drifting trend to persist over the near term.
As it is, local market conditions have largely decoupled from Wall Street’s performance of late, mainly due to lack of local leads and mostly fair valuations that is leaving few buying impetuses for market players to follow.
At the same time, market players are waiting the unveiling of Budget 2025 on Friday (Oct 18) for fresh leads, resulting in the lower market following, particularly from foreign funds that have been net sellers of late.
Under the prevailing environment, the key index looks to linger around the 1,630 and 1,640 levels for longer with the ensuing support and resistance levels pegged at 1,625 and 1,645 points respectively.
Malacca Securities Research
Trading activity has turned cautious ahead of Budget 2025 but the positive attention on Public Bank following last week’s sell-down led to a rebound in the financial sector.
In the US, Wall Street continued to gain momentum, driven by the technology sector with Nvidia hitting new highs as investors bet on strong demand for its next-generation Blackwell AI processors.
On the economic data front, investors are watching key reports, including (i) US retail sales; (ii) US unemployment claims; (iii) China’s GDP; (iv) China’s industrial production; and (v) China’s retail sales.
In the commodity market, Brent crude plunged as tensions in the Middle eased while gold prices remained steady around US$2,650/oz. Elsewhere, crude palm oil *CPO) continued its upward trend by staying above RM4,200/metric tonne.
The FBM KLCI index closed higher at the 1,636 level. Meanwhile, the technical readings on the key index are improving with the MACD histogram having turned positive but the RSI trended below 50.
The resistance is envisaged around 1,651-1,656 while the support is set at 1,616-1,621. – Oct 15, 2024
