BELOW are excerpts of viewpoints from two selected research houses on what investors can expect in the day ahead:
Inter-Pacific Research
After an early bout of profit taking, bargain hunting re-emerged to allow the FBM KLCI to sustain its rebound for a second session and to remain above the psychological 1,500 level.
The buying interest, however, was more modest as concerns over the state of the global economy were still prevalent.
Broader market shares also maintained their recovery with decent gains among FBM Small Cap and FBM ACE-listed stocks. This allowed market breadth to stay positive with steady traded volumes.
Near-term market conditions are staying relatively positive despite the continuing concerns over the tariffs that could dampen the global economic outlook for the foreseeable future.
For the most part, market sentiments are still wary over the direction of the equity markets given the unfolding developments on the tariffs but there should be further pick-ups in market conditions as global equities are off their lows from the recent downtrend.
As such, there could be further bargain hunting at the start of the week as market players continue to leverage of the inexpensive equity valuations to pick up some of the beaten down sector leaders.
On the upside, the targets are at 1,520 and 1,527 points while the supports the immediate support is at 1,510 points, followed by the 1,500-1,504 points.
Malacca Securities Research
The local bourse traded higher, buoyed by gains in YTL-related counters.
Meanwhile, Wall Street rebounded significantly on Friday as investors shrugged off tariff-related headlines.
Nevertheless, Friday’s rallies could not spare the indices from their weekly losses with the Dow posting its worst week since March 2023 while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both fell more than 2%, marking their fourth consecutive losing week.
Investors will also be watching the US retail and core retail sales as well as Chinese industrial production and unemployment rate today.
In the commodities market, Brent crude remained above US$70/barrel while gold prices traded near their all-time high above US$3,000/oz and CPO (crude palm oil) prices continued to hover around RM4,500/metric tonne.
The key index continued to trade below the EMA bands with mixed technical indicators. The MACD histogram expanded negatively while the RSI rebounded off the oversold territory.
Resistance is anticipated around 1,527-1,532 while support is set at 1,492-1,497. – March 17, 2025
