BELOW are excerpts of viewpoints from two selected research houses on what investors can expect in the day ahead:
Inter-Pacific Research
The FBM KLCI continues to tip higher ahead of the unveiling of Budget 2025 last Friday.
The upsides also extended the key index’s gains for a second day and to stay comfortably above the 1,640 level at the close.
However, most Bursa sector indices lost ground amid renewed profit taking actions that left market breadth decidedly on the negative side after the Budget 2025 failed to excite market players. Most lower liner indices also ended the day lower with volumes little changed.
With Budget 2025 largely neutral, the key index could consolidate at the start of the week, potentially bucking the uptrend among many key global indices that gained further ground at the end of last year.
As there were few pointers from the Budget 2025 announcement, this could leave the market to drift amid the already fair valuations following the strong YTD (year-to-date) gains.
Market players will be scouring for new leads and could wait until next month when the US Presidential elections are held.
Other pointers then could be the next US interest rate decision as well as corporate results reporting.
For the time being, the selling pressure is not severe and this could still see the key index finding support around the 1,640 level for the time being.
If the profit taking becomes more severe and the key index consolidates further, the ensuing supports are at the 1,635 and 1,630 levels. The resistances, meanwhile, are at the psychological 1,650 level, followed by the 1,655 level.
Malacca Securities Research
Wall Street ended on a positive note following Netflix’s stronger-than-expected third quarter earnings. We expect the strong technology sector performance combined with positive sentiment from Budget 2025 to provide buying support in the local market.
For this week, traders will be closely watching the following key events: (i) US unemployment claims; (ii) Flash manufacturing and services PMI; (iii) durable goods orders; and (iv) consumer sentiment reports.
In the commodities market, Brent crude continues to trend lower due to weaker demand forecasts from OPEC and the IEA as well as easing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, gold prices surged toward record highs while CPO (crude palm oil) prices remained within the RM4,250-RM4,300/metric range, thus continuing their upward trend.
The FBM KLCI index rebounded towards the 1,645 level. Meanwhile, technical readings on the key index are improving with the MACD histogram having extended another positive histogram and the RSI hooked above 50.
The resistance is envisaged around 1,660-1,665 while the support is set at 1,625-1,630. – Oct 21, 2024
