KUALA LUMPUR (May 1): Bursa Malaysia is expected to continue cautious trading next week as investors may remain on the sidelines ahead of Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) policy meeting on Thursday.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said market talk has it that the central bank is likely to keep the overnight policy rate (OPR) unchanged at 1.75 per cent.

“Sectors tied to the OPR, which is banking and finance, will then be under investors’ radar. Nevertheless, investors might have already priced in for the OPR to be maintained at 1.75 per cent. Hence, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) is expected to trade within a tight range of 1,600-1,610 points next week,” he told Bernama.

Apart from that, he said next week will see the release of manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) data for countries like the United States, Canada, France, Germany, India, Taiwan, Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia.

“The manufacturing PMI data for April will reveal if manufacturing activities in countries like India were heavily affected by the resurgence in COVID-19 cases,” he said.

Adam said economic recovery growth remains tilted to the downside, primarily due to uncertainty over the path of the COVID-19 pandemic and the effectiveness of the vaccination programme.

“Based on data from Our World In Data, the daily dose of COVID-19 vaccine administered per 100 people is lower than its peers such as Thailand and Indonesia,” he added.

For the week just ended, the local bourse was mostly lower with continued selling in plantation, healthcare as well as consumer products and services counters.

Adam said the FBM KLCI ended the day 0.4 per cent lower at 1601.7 points on Friday in tandem with most Asian peers which ended in the red.

Despite the US recording a 6.4 per cent gross domestic produc (GDP) growth first quarter 2021 which pushed the S&P500 index to an all time high on Thursday, he said sentiment remained weak following China’s official gauge of factory activity which fell more-than-expected in April albeit remaining in expansion territory, as both production and new orders retreated.

“In addition, India’s daily COVID-19 cases reached a record high of 386,452 cases on Friday,” he said.

On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the benchmark FBM KLCI declined 6.78 points to 1,601.65 from 1,608.43 registered last Friday.

On the index board, FBM Emas was 42.17 points easier at 11,798.29, the FBMT 100 decreased 41.90 points to 11,450.16, and FBM 70 fell 31.76 points to 15,576.14.

The FBM ACE jumped 159.97 points to 8,846.02, and FBM Emas Shariah decreased 35.19 points to 13,272.50.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index rose 57.40 points to 6,899.69, the Financial Services Index went down 103.98 points to 14,870.25 and the Industrial Products and Services Index was 3.22 points higher at 199.36.

The Healthcare Index surged 32.58 points to 3,313.40, the Energy Index eased 3.48 points to 897.13 and the Technology Index erased 1.76 points to 85.76

Turnover decreased to 28.82 billion units worth RM19.13 billion from 38.76 billion units worth RM21.75 billion in the previous week.

Main Market volume edged down to 15.02 billion shares worth RM14.38 billion from 22.80 billion shares worth RM16.47 billion last week.

Warrants volume slipped to 1.64 billion units worth RM177.03 million from 2.03 billion units worth RM237.14 million previously.

The ACE Market volume narrowed to 12.14 billion shares worth RM3.56 billion from 14.83 billion shares worth RM5.05 billion the week earlier.

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