BELOW are excerpts of viewpoints from two selected research houses on what investors can expect in the day ahead:
Inter-Pacific Research
Malaysian stocks continue to mount strong up-moves, bucking the region’s insipid trend with the key index capturing the 1,500 level for the first time since August 2022.
There were sustained buying on selected index-linked stocks that helped to preserve the key index’s ascend with the lower liners also mostly on the uptrend.
Consequently, market breadth turned positive amid the return of market players that saw traded volumes tip-up close to the 5 billion shsres mark.
Bursa Malaysia stocks continue to hold its own and bucked the global insipid trend to head past the 1,500 hurdle yesterday.
In the process, the momentum appears to be returning and this could still allow the FBM KLCI to make further strides and to clear the 1,500 points hurdle convincingly.
The recent pullback also appears to have been relative benign, hence raising hopes for the emergence of a pre-Chinese New Year rally as the key index continues to play catch up to the gains that many regional indices posted in 2023.
Much of the buying will be on the continuing trading activities as there are still few changes to Bursa Malaysia’s fundamentals for the time being with the next resistances pegged at 1,504 and 1,512 points. The immediate support is at 1,500 points, followed by the 1,495 points.
Malacca Securities Research
The FBM KLCI experienced a strong flag formation breakout led by significant buying interest in YTL-related utilities and banking heavyweights.
Meanwhile, the US was closed for holiday break. Events that investors will be watching out this week include (i) earnings releases from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, (ii) monthly retail sales in the US, (iii) US unemployment claims and (iv) China’s industrial production data.
On the local market, we expect overall sentiment to stay positive following the announcement of seven consortia having submitted RFI proposal for Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High speed rail (HSR) project.
On the commodity markets, Brent crude price gained marginally higher amid rising tension in the Red Sea region.
The FBM KLCI continued to rally after forming a flag formation. The technical readings on the key index were however mixed with the MACD Histogram forming a rounding top formation while the RSI maintains above the 50 level.
The resistance is envisaged around 1,510-1,520 while the support is set at 1,470-1,480. – Jan 16, 2024
