BELOW are excerpts of viewpoints from two selected research houses on what investors can expect in the day ahead:
Inter-Pacific Research
Malaysian equities mounted a firm rebound to end last week on a positive note, breaking its streak of consecutive days of losses and to find some measure of support.
As it is, bargain hunting from domestic players emerged stronger to help end the losses with many broader market shares also making a comeback, thus allowing for total gaining stocks to be ahead of losing ones.
Traded volumes, however, were more modest at just over 3 billion share.
Last Friday’s rebound was welcomed to allow the key index to break its streak of consecutive losses and to find some support around the 1,560 level.
However, the key index is not out of the woods yet as there remains selling pressure from foreign funds that could still cause stocks to succumb to quick profit taking.
Nevertheless, we think that there should be more upsides as stocks on Bursa Malaysia remains oversold and a rebound is still in the offing over the near-term to adjust from the deep sell-down recently.
The strength of the recovery, however, may still be modest due to continuous selling by foreign funds while broad-based fresh buying interest remains tepid.
On the upside, the hurdles are at the 1,576-1,580 points levels, followed by 1,585 points. The supports, meanwhile, are at 1,556 points and 1,550 points respectively.
Malacca Securities Research
The local bourse closed higher, led by the utilities and banking heavyweights.
In the US, softer-than-expected inflationary data coupled with stronger earnings from major banks had contributed to the buying interest on Wall Street.
Meanwhile, all eyes will be focusing on President Trump’s inauguration speech later today.
In the commodities market, Brent crude experienced a marginal pullback below the US$81/barrel level while gold price is hovering above US$2,700/oz.
In anticipation of Trump’s supportive stance towards cryptocurrency, bitcoin continued to stay elevated above the US$100,000 mark while CPO (crude palm oil) prices rebounded slightly to close at RM4,190/metric tonne.
While the FBM KLCI rebounded on Friday, it is still closing below all the moving average lines, suggesting that downtrend is still intact. Both the MACD Histogram and RSI trended in their negative territories.
Resistance is anticipated around 1,581-1,586 while support is set at 1,546-1,551. – Jan 20, 2025
