Bursa Malaysia expected to see lacklustre trading next week

Bursa Malaysia is expected to see lacklustre trading next week as most investors are likely to stay on the sidelines awaiting fresh leads, dealers said.

They said market sentiment was expected to be more cautious with slight optimism.

The local bourse, however, may stage a rebound due to favourable external and domestic factors.

Maybank IB Research, in its note, said the recent first quarter corporate results reporting season showed slowing growth momentum in terms of corporate earnings.

"We now expect KLCI core earnings to grow 7.0 per cent in 2014 (versus more than 8.1 per cent earlier) and our research universe core earnings to grow 7.9 per cent," the research house said.

It said sustained global liquidity would drive the KLCI towards higher levels in second half of 2014.

However, with several domestic developments yet to play out which would cap near to medium-term earnings growth, it does not expect the KLCI to re-rate significantly.

Maybank IB Research continues to rate "overweight" on construction, and oil & gas sectors with news flow expected to remain positive in the second half of 2014.

For the week just-ended, the FBM KLCI increased 3.9 points to 1,884.91 from 1,880.93 previously.

The Finance Index rose 78.3 points to 17,219.961, Plantation Index eased 9.7 points to 9,229.75 and the Industrial Index inched up 2.7 points to 3,250.27.

The FBM Emas Index edged up 52.5 points to 13,093.04, FBMT100 Index added 38 points to 12,706.29, FBM Ace climbed 39.6 points to 6,735.37 and the FBM 70 soared 86.1 points to 14,299.02.

Weekly turnover increased slightly to 8.98 billion shares, valued at RM9.97 billion, from 8.49 billion shares, valued at RM9.99 billion, recorded last week.

Main market volume increased to 7.32 billion units, worth RM9.64 billion, from 6.63 billion units, worth RM9.64 billion, registered previously.

Warrant turnover contracted to 116.33 million units. valued at RM17.10 million, from 146.93 million units, valued at RM22.02 million, transacted last Friday.

The ACE market volume depreciated to 1.31 billion shares, worth RM279.25 million, from 1.53 billion shares, worth RM301.31 billion, traded last week.