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 went nowhere yesterday as it approaches the psychological 1,500 with market players still assessing the key index’s next moves following its recent strong recovery.
With fewer available leads for market players to follow, this saw the key index reverting to a sideway trend with regional indices being mixed.
Eventually, the broader market lost pace amid the prevalence of wait-and-see actions with market breadth having turned negative once again as buying interest thinned further to just 1.5 billion shares.
Market conditions are likely to remain insipid with concerns shifting to the US Federal Reserve’s independence that sent the Wall Street steeply lower again overnight.
This could again pressure Malaysian stocks as it could mirror the performance of US equities by heading lower amid the more subdued global equity market conditions.
Domestic leads are also far and in between that could leave stocks to drift again. Still, with the relatively thin market following, selling could also be thin with mild profit taking emerging after the past few session’s gains.
On the downside, the supports are now set at 1,487 points and at 1,475 points respectively. The resistances, meanwhile, remain at the 1,500 level and at 1,510 points respectively.
Malacca Securities Research
We see opportunities to accumulate positions in the glove sector as we expect higher order flows in the mid-term given that Malaysia’s glove manufacturers are now more cost-optimised following US tariffs on China.
In addition to stable earnings and high dividend yields, we further anticipate momentum in the banking stocks.
However, given the on-going trade war with businesses adopting a wait-and-see approach, traders may shift their attention to domestically driven consumer sector and safe haven asset proxies to better weather the current economic uncertainty.
The key index broke above the short-term EMA (exponential moving average) with technical indicators showing signs of recovery. The MACD histogram expanded positively while the RSI crossed above the 50 level.
Resistance is anticipated around 1,514–1,519 while support is located at 1,479–1,484. – April 22, 2025
