BELOW are excerpts of viewpoints from two selected research houses on what investors can expect in the day ahead:
Berjaya Research
The FBM KLCI snapped a four-day losing streak yesterday as bargain hunting emerged with two-thirds of its constituents closing higher.
Trading activity picked up with total market volume rising to 3.70 billion shares from 3.44 billion shares in the previous session.
Market breadth also improved, with 661 advancers outpacing 512 decliners, suggesting a relatively broad-based recovery in market sentiment.
Going forward, we expect the FBM KLCI to extend its recovery and attempt to build on yesterday’s gains, supported by bargain hunting and a relatively contained US inflation data backdrop which could help ease concerns over the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy trajectory.
Nevertheless, upside may remain measured amid on-going geopolitical uncertainties and elevated oil prices.
Investors are likely to remain cautious ahead of the US PPI data later tonight which could provide further clues on underlying price pressures and the outlook for interest rates.
Technically, the key index has formed a bullish candlestick to recover all of its previous session losses and looks to resume its uptrend formation.
The immediate resistances are envisaged at 1,750 points, followed by 1,757 points. Meanwhile, near-term supports are pegged at 1,725 points and 1,711 points respectively.
Malacca Securities Research
Tracking the positive overnight performance on Wall Street, we expect the local bourse to extend its bullish momentum today.
While buying interest was seen in water-related stocks such as Ranhill Utilities Bhd and ISF Group Bhd, we also favour Insights Analytics Bhd, underpinned by (i) the accelerating water infrastructure roll-outs in Sarawak; (ii) national non-revenue water (NRW) reduction programmes; and (iii) IAB’s expanding high-margin intelligent asset management solutions.
Lastly, we continue to favour both Sam Engineering & Equipment (M) Bhd and MClean Technologies Bhd with the former acting as applied materials’ proxy while the latter benefits from strong precision cleaning and surface treatment demand.
The FBM KLCI rebounded on Wednesday and held comfortably above its 10-day SMA (simple moving average) but technical indicators are showing mixed signals. The MACD histogram has begun to decline into the negative region while the RSI is hovering above the 50 level.
Key resistance is pegged at 1,756-1,761 with support expected around 1,721-1,726. – Aug 13, 2026
