BELOW are excerpts of viewpoints from two selected research houses on what investors can expect in the day ahead:
Inter-Pacific Research
Strong pick-up from foreign funds has enabled the FBM KLCI to gather more pace yesterday, hence able to surge past the psychological 1,550 level to end the day on strong gains in YTL- related shares and Genting Malaysia Bhd.
While the heavyweights rose, the lower liners dithered and were mostly lower due to the continuing profit taking activities that saw total losers again beating gainers for the day. Traded volumes, meanwhile, inched higher but stayed below the 4 billion shares mark.
Market conditions look to remain on a purple patch as the key index is taking a step up to rise above another of its resistance level, bringing the year-to-date (YTD0 gains to over 7.0% and the FBM KLCI emerging as the top outperformer among regional indices.
With much of the gains contributed by a strong interest from foreign funds, the upsides look to continue on optimism that the country’s economic outlook will improve in the quarters ahead.
This should help to sustain the near-term gains as the key index would be looking to fortify its position above the 1,550 level. Any pullback would also appear to be mild due to continuing buying support.
On the upside, the resistances are now at the 1,560-1,563 levels and at the 1,570 level. There is an interim support at the 1,555 level, followed by the 1,550 level.
Malacca Securities Research
The FBM KLCI added strength after a four-day consolidation with the help of utilities heavyweights.
Likely, the overall sentiment will remain positive, digesting improvements in the latest quarterly results.
On Wall Street, sentiment was mixed as the US Consumer Confidence retreated in February.
Meanwhile, traders will be focusing on the upcoming Core PCE, unemployment claims and the US Manufacturing PMI as these factors may dictate the US Federal Reserve’s tone going forward.
On the commodity market, Brent crude price slid to the US$81-US$83/barrel range after US President Joe Biden’s statement on a potential ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas is in the works. Meanwhile gold prices have recovered gradually above the US$2,030/oz zone.
The FBM KLCI ended higher breaking out from the four-bar consolidation pattern. However, technical readings on the key index were mixed with the MACD Histogram forming a rounding top formation while the RSI is hovering above 70.
The resistance is envisaged around 1,565-1,575 while the support is set at 1,540-1,550. – Feb 28, 2024
