BELOW are excerpts of viewpoints from two selected research houses on what investors can expect in the day ahead:
Inter-Pacific Research
Although the key index opened higher yesterday, it ended the day on another downbeat note albeit the losses were relatively minute.
Market conditions were generally tepid with few noteworthy leads as the last results reporting cycle for the year nears its conclusion.
The lower liners and broader market shares also maintained their pullback with healthcare stocks being the day’s big losers and leaving market breadth decidedly negative. Traded volumes were lower at 3.3 billion shares.
There is little change to the immediate market outlook with the key index to remain subdued by the lack of buying interest.
Under the prevailing environment, the FBM KLCI is likely to continue drifting for now after it failed to hold on to the psychological 1,450 level.
As it is, local institutional players have been unwinding some of their positions after they provided support last month. Their selling activity could send the key index lower, notwithstanding the return of foreign funds of late.
The FBM KLCI has also decoupled from the positive trend among the key global indices and could still head lower as the selling pressure looks to stay.
The immediate support is at the 1,445 level which is followed by the 1,440-1,442 levels. On the other hand, the immediate hurdle is the 1,450 level, followed by the 1,445 level.
Malacca Securities Research
The FBM KLCI has declined for the third consecutive session in line with sentiment in the regional benchmark indices.
Wall Street traded mixed near the resistance zone for all the three major indices. We think the declining 10-year US Treasury yield could be indicating that the market is looking at a softer inflationary pressure going forward which may translate to less likelihood of another rate hike by the US Federal Reserve.
Closer to home, we believe trading activities may turn softer as most of the corporate earnings were not up to expectations.
On the commodity markets, Brent crude prices traded above the US$82/barrel level with the anticipation of further extension of the production cuts to be announced in today’s OPEC+ meeting (Nov 30).
The FBM KLCI ended marginally lower for the third session by consolidating further and traded negatively biased at this juncture. The technical readings on the key index are weak with the MACD Histogram forming another negative histogram while the RSI continued to maintain below the 50 level.
The resistance is pegged around 1,455-1,460 while the support is at 1,430-1,440. – Nov 30, 2023
