In a note released this morning, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said telecommunications and utilities will likely attract attention as the rally on Wall Street runs its course.
On the other hand, the plantation sector will keep investors interested as crude palm oil (CPO) futures price stays above the RM3,000 level, the brokerage said.
It also remains positive on travel-related counters.
Despite a resurgence in concerns over a global recession, especially after the Bank of England raised the interest rate by 50 basis points (bps), the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) began the week on a higher note.
Malacca Securities believes the market will continue to monitor economic data from Japan, the US and China for further clarity on the current state of the economy this week, Bernama reported.
“The pullback on Wall Street last Friday, coupled with the bigger-than-expected rate hike from the Bank of England as well as a higher-than-expected Japanese inflation may weigh on the market sentiment,” it said.
The FBM KLCI began the day at 1,391.55 points, up 0.66 of-a-point from last Friday’s close of 1,390.89 points.
It rose further to 1,392.46 points just 10 minutes later.
However, the broader market was negative with decliners surpassing advancers 152 to 126, while 250 counters were unchanged, 1,789 were not traded and 40 others were suspended.
The turnover stood at 236.09 million units worth RM80.70 million.
Among the heavyweights, Public Bank and CIMB rose two sen each to RM3.90 and RM5.23 respectively, while Tenaga Nasional eased three sen to RM9.17, IHH Healthcare reduced two sen to RM5.84 and Maybank was flat at RM8.74.
Of the actives, Bahvest Resources edged up two sen to 18.5 sen and Sarawak Consolidated perked up a sen to 43.5 sen, while Reach Energy and Cloudpoint Technology fell half-a-sen each to 3.5 sen and 54.5 sen respectively, and Classita was flat at 9.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 5.94 points better at 10,238.12, the FBMT 100 Index increased 6.86 points to 9,940.58, and the FBM ACE Index earned 6.28 points to 5,049.15, while the FBM Emas Shariah Index went down 6.30 points to 10,509.45 and the FBM 70 Index gave up 9.12 points to 13,447.07.
Sector-wise, the financial services index ticked up 40.18 points to 15,485.03 and the industrial products and services index was 0.18 of-a-point higher at 159.05, while the energy index slid 0.71 of-a-point to 784.37 and the plantation index trimmed 12.04 points to 6,706.40.