Saturday, February 20, 2010

Post-CNY rally on Bursa expected

Stock market dealers are expecting a post-Chinese New Year rally on Bursa Malaysia next week with the return of investors from their long holiday.


However, they are also aware that investors would remain cautious after Europe's debt crisis which could impact the global economic recovery and the US Federal Reserve's move to raise the discount rate.


This week, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index gained 4.28 points to 1,257.67 from 1,253.39 previously.


"The index is likely to rally further to correct its battered down oversold situation in the near term. We expect 1,280 to 1,300 as the cap for the current rally with double top in progress," said MIMB Investment Bank in its research note.


Prudential Fund Management said in its research report that worries over sovereign default risk and aggressive central banks' policy tightening had dented market sentiment in recent weeks.

"Until a clearer picture emerges on this fronts, volatility looks set to remain a feature of equity markets," it added.

On a weekly basis, the Finance Index rose 55.9 points to 11,001.94, the Plantation Index surged 72.61 points to 6,277.11 and the Industrial Index increased 12.94 points to 2,601.01.

The FBM Emas Index went up 17.54 points to 8,453.87, the FBM Top 100 rose 18.79 points to 8,229.02 while the FBM ACE Index eased 1.69 points to 4,327.28.

This week also saw Homeritz making a debut on the Main Market with 3.5 sen premium over its offer price of 65 sen. The Johor-based upholstered home furniture manufacturer closed at 65.5 sen with 726,704 lots changed hands.

The weekly Bursa Malaysia turnover dropped to 1.767 billion shares valued at RM3.175 billion from 3.365 billion shares valued at RM5.685 billion previously as the bourse was closed on Monday and Tuesday for Chinese New Year celebrations.

Volume on the Main Market decreased to 1.475 billion worth RM3.103 billion from 2.875 billion shares valued at RM5.579 billion.

Call warrants declined to 94.302 million units valued at RM13.626 million from 153.079 million units valued at RM26.959 million.

The ACE Market volume fell to 178.72 million shares worth RM46.585 million from 226.190 million shares valued at RM48.175 million. -- Bernama

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