BELOW are excerpts of viewpoints from two selected research houses on what investors can expect in the day ahead:
Inter-Pacific Research
Despite tipping higher for most of the day, the FBM KLCI ended the day with minute losses on the emergence of late profit taking that also sent it to its intraday low.
For the most part, conditions were still insipid and devoid of fresh leads, leaving the market to drift.
Consequently, Bursa sector indices also ended little changed but construction stocks outperformed for a second day. Market breadth was also mixed with traded volumes being similar to those a day earlier.
It would appear that the key index is building up a base around the 1,630 and 1,640 levels amid the easing selling pressure following the volatile market conditions last month.
Nevertheless, the still largely cautious market trend could still prevail with the lack of leads holding fresh buying interest back albeit foreign buying is trickling back after they switched to Greater China stocks recently.
The directionless trading could see the FBM KLCI making little headway as market players are also awaiting the unveiling of Budget 2025 next week for potentially new directions although there could still be some mild upside bias in the interim, mirroring the overnight gains on key global equity indices.
Apart from the above support and resistance levels, the others are at 1,625 and 1,647 points respectively.
Malacca Securities Research
Trading activity on the Bursa Exchange was mildly negative with both the FBM KLCI and FBM Small Cap closing in negative territory but attention was shifted towards the Construction and REIT sectors.
Meanwhile, the US stock markets rallied with both the Dow and S&P 500 reaching new all-time highs while the Nasdaq breaking out as traders assessed the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) meeting minutes from September.
Meanwhile, we expect traders to focus on the upcoming CPI (consumer price index) and PPI (producer price index) data over the next two trading days to gauge the direction of the US Federal Reserve’s monetary policy.
In the commodities market, Brent crude saw another sell-off, falling below US$77/barrel due to higher-than-expected crude oil inventories while gold prices continued to retrace towards the US$2,600/oz level. Elsewhere, crude palm oil (CPO) traded lower but holding firmly above RM4,200/metric tonne.
The FBM KLCI index ended flat at the 1,634 level. The technical readings on the key index were negative with the MACD histogram formed another negative bar and the RSI trended below 50.
The resistance is envisaged around 1,649-1,654 while the support is set at 1,614-1,619. – Oct 10, 2024
