Bursa Malaysia puts up resilient display

SHARE prices on Bursa Malaysia consolidated for the most part of last week. The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia Composite Index (FBM KLCI) continued to stay above its critical support of 1,100 points when it closed at 1,184.88 on Friday.
Yesterday, the combined gains of Axiata, YTL, Petronas Gas and MAS managed to offset losses incurred by Genting, AMMB, Sime Darby and IOI Corp. The FBM KLCI closed marginally higher at 1,184.88, giving a day-on-day gain of 0.91 point, or 0.08 per cent.

Among other indices, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Small Cap Index gained 294.43 points, or 3.01 per cent, to 10,070.91 while the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Mesdaq Index eased 14.16 points, or 0.33 per cent, to 4,244.55.

The following are the readings of some of the FBM KLCI's technical indicators:

Moving Averages: The FBM KLCI continued to stay above its 10-, 20-, 30-, 50-, 100- and 200-day moving averages.
Momentum Index: Its short-term momentum index continued to stay above the support of its neutral reference line.
On Balance Volume: Its short-term OBV trend stayed above the support of its 10-day exponential moving averages.
Relative Strength Index: Its 14-day RSI stood at the 78.05 per cent level on Friday.

Technical Outlook
The FBM KLCI's continuing technical rebound hit its intra-week high of 1,191.66 yesterday, moving into the confines of this column's envisaged resistance zone (1,178 to 1,212 levels).
The FBM KLCI's weekly chart continued to stay above its critical support (See FBM KLCI's weekly chart A5:A6) yesterday. It continued to stay above its resistance-turned-support trendline (A3:A4).
Chartwise, the benchmark index's daily trend continued to stay above its downside support (See FBM KLCI's daily chart B1:B2) yesterday. It continued to stay below its intermediate-term uptrend (B7:B8).

The FBM KLCI's daily, weekly and monthly fast Moving Average Convergence Divergence indicators (MACDs) stayed above their respective slow MACDs.

The FBM KLCI's 14-day RSI stayed at the 78.04 per cent level yesterday. Its 14-week and 14-month RSI stayed at the 76.31 and 58.35 per cent levels respectively.

Last week, this column commented that the FBM KLCI was likely to move into its rangebound phase in consolidating its recent gains. It did. The FBM KLCI was rangebound in the last five trading days.

The benchmark index will move gradually towards its major psychological resistance of 1,200 points sometime next week. Trading focus will shift to second and third liners.

Next week, the FBM KLCI's envisaged resistance zone hovers at the 1,188 to 1,222 levels while its immediate downside support is at 1,147 to 1,181.

On the foreign front, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 113.81 points, or 1.2%, at 9370.07. The S&P 500 was up 13.40 points, or 1.3%, at 1010.48. The Nasdaq was up 27.09 points, or 1.4%, at 2000.25. For the week, the Dow was up 2.2%, the S&P 500 was up 2.3% and the Nasdaq was up 1.1%.

The S&P 500 is now up about 50% from its 12-year closing low in early March, helped by stronger-than-expected corporate earnings and a string of economic data that has suggested a recovery.

On Bursa Malaysia, the FBM KLCI chalked up a week-on-week gain of 9.98 points, or 0.85 per cent.