BELOW are excerpts of viewpoints from two selected research houses on what investors can expect in the day ahead:
Inter-Pacific Research
There remains little fresh buying impetus as the FBM KLCI continues to head south yesterday, surrendering much of the most recent gains that also saw it breach the 1,460 level to linger close to the 1,455-support level at the close.
The selling activity was also fairly widespread with most Bursa sector indices also retreating further.
As a result, market breadth remained in the negative territory for the day but traded volumes were relatively unchanged at just above 3.2 billion shares.
The continuing market pullback is leaving market sentiments on the slide again as there is little follow-through buying interest to sustain the FBM KLCI’s most recent uptrend.
Apart from the lack of domestic catalysts, foreign leads are also far and in-between to encourage firmer participation in the equity market.
The latest GDP (gross domestic product) announcement failed to excite market players as the economic outlook for the rest of the year and into the early parts of 2024 will still remain subdued by the weak external market environment.
As such, the overall market conditions could still stay relatively indifferent for the time being despite the overnight gains on Wall Street that are unlikely to provide much impetus.
With few signs of a turnaround as yet, the key index’s near-term slide may continue with the 1,450-1,453 support levels coming into play, followed by the 1,445 level. Apart from the 1,460 hurdles, the other is at 1,465 points.
Malacca Securities Research
The FBM KLCI retraced for the third session after the flag breakout. Meanwhile, Wall Street surged higher, supported by the buying interest within Nvidia and Microsoft where both stocks were pushed towards new highs.
Nvidia was higher in view of better results in the upcoming corporate earnings while the OpenAI ex-CEO joining Microsoft may enhance prospect of the IT giant turning into an AI (artificial intelligence) powerhouse.
We believe these positive catalysts may provide trading opportunities towards crafting new highs in the stock markets at least for the near term, offsetting the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) meeting minutes that will be released tomorrow.
Closer to home, the focus will be on the ongoing reporting season. On the commodity markets, Brent oil prices traded near US$82/barrel with the expectations that OPEC+ will take steps to extend the oil production cuts.
The FBM KLCI ended lower for the third session, forming another flag pattern. The technical readings on the key index are positive with the MACD Histogram extending a positive bar while the RSI has maintained above 50.
The resistance is pegged around 1,470-1,480 while the support is at 1,440-1,455. – Nov 21, 2023
