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 fell yesterday to slip below the 1,540 level as the selling pressure emerged to break its three-day uptrend streak.
The pullback was largely due to the drop on Wall Street a day earlier on the possibility of interest rates remaining elevated for longer which has also sent most regional indices lower.
In the broader market, however, conditions were mixed with energy stocks rising on recent oil price gains. Market breadth was negative but traded volumes stayed above 4 billion shares.
As we have noted, the key index has yet to build up sufficient momentum to make the next step and to break of the immediate resistance at the 1,550 level.
There remains hesitation due to the lack of convincing leads and this could leave the key index on its sideway trend for the time being.
Also, we believe the key index’s YTD (year-to-date) gains have largely reflected the stock market’s near-term fundamentals and this would also limit the potential upsides.
With few market pointers available, we see the consolidation trend persisting albeit the key index is finding some support at the 1,537 level which is also yesterday’s closing level.
For the most part, we see the FBM KLCI continuing with its base-building within the 1,530 and 1,550 levels. There is an interim support at 1,532 points while the hurdles remain at 1,540 and 1,545 points respectively.
Malacca Securities Research
The FBM KLCI snapped three-day winning streak as profit taking activities emerged on banking heavyweights while the FBM Small Cap charged higher, marking its fresh 52-week high.
Meanwhile, the US stock markets ended on a mixed note whereby the Dow fell 0.11% but the S&P500 and Nasdaq rose 0.11% and 0.23% respectively following a mixed bag of economic data; the ADP’s non-farm employment added 184,000 jobs (vs estimate of 148,000) while the ISM services PMI (purchasing managers’ index) came in at 51.4 (below consensus of 52.8).
On the commodity front, Brent crude gained momentum, rising near the US$90/barrel zone while the FCPO (crude palm oil futures) closed above RM4,400/metric tonne. Elsewhere, gold price ended at another all-time-high above US$2,300/oz.
The FBM KLCI index ended lower after a three-day rebound. The technical readings on the key index were mixed with the MACD Histogram having turned positive while the RSI is slightly below 50.
The resistance is envisaged around 1,550-1,555 while the support is set at 1,515-1,520. – April 4, 2024
