KL shares likely to see rangebound trading

Bursa Malaysia is likely to see rangebound trading next week due to uncertainty conditions in the global front.

A dealer said with no near term catalysts in sight, the market would continue in lacklustre trade and poised for more weakness.

However, losses could be limited amid portfolio adjustments by fund managers and institutions to prop up their mid-year performance, he added.

He said there could also be buying opportunities especially among the mid-caps and lower liners following their recent corrections.

"Investors could be interested in beaten-down stocks which offer attractive valuations now after the recent correction," the dealer said.

Affin Investment Bank's head of retail research, Dr Nazri Khan, said there could be little change to the doldrums sentiment with the benchmark FBM KLCI remaining trapped in a 1,540-1,570 sideway range over the last four weeks.

Domestically, he said that fundamentals and earnings remained intact with the key index showing resilient price performance with a mere 0.8 per cent slide against bigger Dow Jones (six per cent) and Nikkei (11 per cent) losses for this year.

"Of course, while we agree there are many short term headwinds, we think the bad news are not new and may have already been priced into stocks," he said.

Nazri said the proposed listing of MSM Malaysia on June 28 would give some positive impacts on Bursa Malaysia to offset some battered sentiment following the failed merger plan of RHB Capital.

For the week just ended, the benchmark index stayed firm at its crucial 1,560 level and traded rangebound before closing the week higher on buying support from selected heavyweights, especially Maybank and CIMB.

This was due to the decision by the two largest banks to call off talks with RHB Capital on a possible merger as it was a relief for investors as the possible deal was believed to be expensive.

The benchmark index ended the week 1.20 points higher at 1,564.66.

The Finance Index fell 131.5 points to 14,615.53, Plantation Index slipped 23.8 points to 7,863.83 while Industrial Index gained 26.90 points to 2,800.76.

The FBM Emas Index rose 3.10 points to 10,742.61, FBM Mid 70 Index was up 1.20 points to 11,685.66 while FBM Ace Index declined 13.10 points to 4,230.68.

The weekly volume increased to 4.6 billion shares worth RM7.64 billion from 4.12 billion shares worth RM7.81 billion last week.

The Main Market turnover climbed to 3.48 billion units worth RM7.44 billion from 2.96 billion units worth RM7.59 billion.

Volume on the ACE Market rose to 890.96 million shares valued at RM160.69 million from 869.11 million units valued at RM169.26 million previously.

However, warrants declined to 201.29 million units worth RM25.52 million from 232.48 million units worth RM33.84 million. -- Bernama