KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia is expected to remain in consolidation mode, with an upside bias for the time being, until fresh catalysts emerge.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said that despite this short-term consolidation, the longer-term trend remains upward as the index still holds above the 50-day exponential moving average (EMA).
"We reckon sectors to focus on for next week are plantation, energy, and banks due to their appealing valuations.
"Therefore, we anticipate the index to fluctuate within the 1,605-1,625 range next week with the support level identified at 1,600, followed by 1,592," he told Bernama.
On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the FBM KLCI eased 23.67 points to 1,612.88 from last week's 1,636.55 .
During the week, Bursa Malaysia fluctuated, starting lower due to profit-taking and regional market downturns. It briefly rebounded as investors bought selected blue chips, but weakened again amid a global sell-off.
The market pulled back due to negative Wall Street impacts and ended the week slightly weaker with cautious trading amid global volatility.
On Bursa Malaysia's index board, the FBM Emas Index decreased by 195.53 points to 12,463.73, the FBMT 100 Index dropped 181.86 points to 12,050.56, the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 295.95 points to 12,741.15, the FBM 70 Index fell 297.86 points to 18,530.15 and the FBM ACE Index decreased by 140.12 points to 5,794.09.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index edged slightly lower by 0.86 of-a-point to 17,971.92, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 5.17 points to 191.85, the Energy Index slid 9.46 points to 966.13, and the Plantation Index saw a significant drop of 80.66 points to 7,144.19.
For the week just ended, turnover eased to 23.24 billion units valued at RM15.63 billion versus 25.23 billion units valued at RM18.85 billion in the preceding week.
The Main Market volume slipped to 12.38 billion shares worth RM13.40 billion against 14.21 billion shares worth RM16.42 billion a week ago.
Warrants turnover dropped to 6.10 billion units valued at RM745.77 million from 6.32 billion units valued at RM2.23 million last week.
The ACE Market volume improved to 4.75 billion shares worth RM1.48 billion from 4.69 billion shares worth RM1.61 billion previously.