BELOW are excerpts of viewpoints from two selected research houses on what investors can expect in the day ahead:
Berjaya Research
The FBM KLCI extended its lead on Monday after trading in the positive territory throughout the session, tracking Wall Street’s gains.
The broader market, however, ended mixed despite the positive market breadth with 641 advancers against 467 decliners. Meanwhile, trading volume climbed to 3.10 billion shares from 2.83 billion shares on continuing rotational play.
With the FBM KLCI lingering at a six-year high and is now a couple of points away from the 1,700 psychological level, the local bourse is expected to trade with a slightly bullish but cautious bias as investors turn their attention to the US corporate earnings season with several major banks set to release their quarterly results this week.
Positive earnings surprises could provide near-term upside support to market sentiment although gains may be tempered by on-going sensitivity to interest rate expectations and broader global macro developments.
Against this backdrop, the local market is likely to build on recent momentum gradually, underpinned by selective buying in fundamentally strong names.
Technically, the key index has formed another bullish candlestick and is looking to charge towards the immediate resistance located at the 1,700 psychological level, followed by 1,720 points. Meanwhile, the supports are located at 1,685 points and 1,665 points respectively.
Malacca Securities Research
As the FBM KLCI approaches the 1,700-point level, we expect the key index to test this psychological mark in the near term.
Meanwhile, the market is focusing on Sunway Bhd’s proposal to acquire IJM Corp Bhd in a RM11 bil cash-and-share deal, implying a ~15% premium to IJM’s last traded price.
We view the transaction positively as the enlarged group will command a combined GDV (gross development value) of circa RM118 bil and an outstanding order book of about RM13 bil.
For IJM, the deal offers immediate value realisation while Sunway benefits from enhanced execution capabilities and a stronger position to capture large infrastructure, data centre and industrial projects going forward.
Monday’s session saw the local bourse trended positively with technical indicators showing signs of improvement as the MACD histogram approached zero while the RSI is still hovering above 50.
Resistance is anticipated around 1,710-1,715 while support is seen at 1,675-1,680. – Jan 13, 2026
