BELOW are excerpts of viewpoints from two selected research houses on what investors can expect in the day ahead:
Inter-Pacific Research
Malaysian equities regained traction yesterday but ended off its day high on quick profit taking.
Much of the gains emanated from bargain hunting and mild window dressing activities in tandem with the strong gains in key overseas bourses late last week.
At the same time, firmer commodity prices also helped to shore up plantation stocks.
Market breadth was positive but traded volumes stayed well below the 3.0 billion mark as most market players remained on the sidelines.
Although yesterday’s gains are welcomed to break the market’s dour trend, the near-term outlook remains indifferent.
Concerns over the Omicron variant and potentially slower earnings growth ahead could continue to weigh on market sentiments.
In addition, there are also fewer noteworthy leads to encourage more market players back into the market and collectively, this could extend the key index’s drifting mode and keep the key index trending within the 1,480 and 1,500 points for the time being.
There will still be mild buying support to keep the key index above 1,480 level for now but the lack of fresh buying is likely to make the 1,500 level a formidable hurdle to break over the near term.
The other support and resistance levels are at 1,490 and 1,507 points respectively.
Malacca Securities Research
The FBM KLCI outperformed the mixed regional markets as the key index inched higher, mirroring the positive performance on Wall Street overnight.
While the market players may focus on the window dressing activities in the near future, investors are likely to remain cautious ahead of the interest rate decision and monetary policies outcome from the US Federal Reserve, Bank of England, European Central Bank and Bank of Japan which is scheduled to be released this week.
Meanwhile, crude palm oil (CPO) prices stayed above RM4,700 while the crude oil hovered above the US$74/barrel mark.
The FBM KLCI finished on a positive note but remains below the 1,500 significant psychological level.
Technical indicators remained mixed as the Histogram is in the positive region while the RSI is hovering below the 50 level. Support is located around 1,485 while the resistance is envisaged along 1,520-1,535. – Dec 14, 2021
