Bursa Malaysia expected to rise towards 1,590 level next week
UOB Kay Hian Wealth Advisors Sdn Bhd head of investment research Mohd Sedek Jantan said that given the weekend timing of the meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Malaysia's equity market will absorb any geopolitical repricing effects when trading resumes next week.
'Domestically, the investment narrative will be shaped by further disclosures on the 13th Malaysia Plan (13MP) project allocations, while the approach of Budget 2026 — now under two months away — will heighten focus on stakeholder engagement sessions as potential precursors to fiscal policy direction ahead of the Prime Minister's parliamentary tabling,' he told Bernama.
On the inflation front, Mohd Sedek said Malaysia's July Consumer Price Index (CPI), due for release on Friday, Aug 22, will offer the first high-frequency read on the pass-through impact of the broadened Sales and Service Tax (SST) regime.
'We project headline CPI at 1.2 to 1.3 per cent year-on-year, up from 1.1 per cent in June, with core inflation expected to remain contained,' he said.
Globally, Mohd Sedek said, investor attention is set to converge on Wednesday's release of the Federal Open Market Committee minutes and the Jackson Hole Symposium (Aug 21-23) — both considered potential catalysts for repricing policy-rate expectations if a pivot narrative gains momentum.
'Pre-Jackson Hole signalling from Washington has intensified, with the Trump administration adopting a more assertive communications posture than the Federal Reserve's (Fed) measured, data-dependent stance.
'Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has escalated his call from a 50-basis-point cut to a cumulative 150-basis-point reduction, amplifying political pressure on the Fed.
'This shift, combined with personnel changes at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the nomination of dovish candidates to the Federal Reserve Board, reflects a coordinated strategy to influence Fed chair Jerome Powell's policy trajectory,' he said.
He added that any eventual dovish recalibration could be positioned domestically as both a political and macroeconomic victory, reinforcing the administration's narrative of executive influence over monetary normalisation.
On a weekly basis, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose 19.36 points to 1,576.34 on Friday from 1,556.98 a week earlier.
The FBM Emas Index gained 129.27 points to 11,731.06, the FBMT 100 Index climbed 132.95 points to 11,512.86, the FBM Emas Shariah Index added 20.67 points to 11,654.85, the FBM 70 Index improved 155.15 points to 16,660.68, and the FBM ACE Index advanced 106.57 points to 4,713.45.
By sector, the Financial Services Index rose 499.25 points to 18,080.07, the Plantation Index increased 77.91 points to 7,504.03, and the Energy Index went up 4.11 points to 740.83.
Weekly turnover dropped to 11.10 billion units worth RM11.87 billion from 12.65 billion units worth RM11.65 billion in the previous week.
The Main Market volume shrank to 7.16 billion units valued at RM11.06 billion compared with 7.66 billion units valued at RM10.61 billion previously.
Warrants turnover declined to 3.37 billion units worth RM453.56 million from 3.62 billion units worth RM508.07 million in the preceding week.
The weekly ACE Market volume grew to 1.64 billion units valued at RM593.87 million versus 1.37 billion units valued at RM529.84 million previously. — BERNAMA
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
26 minutes ago
- The Star
Appealing REIT take-up rate
REAL estate investment trusts (REITs) have proven to be a shelter in times of uncertainty. Year-to-date, the Bursa Malaysia REIT index is up by over 7%, outperforming the benchmark FBM KLCI which is down by 6%.
Barnama
31 minutes ago
- Barnama
Woodlands Checkpoint Upgrade To Maximise JS-SEZ Potential
By Nur Ashikin Abdul Aziz SINGAPORE, Aug 17 (Bernama) -- The redevelopment of Woodlands Checkpoint, to be expanded to five times its current size, will improve cross-border connectivity and maximise the potential of the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ). Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in his National Day Rally (NDR) speech said that the redevelopment will ensure more efficient and secure clearances, as well as shorter wait times and smoother traffic. bootstrap slideshow 'The SEZ has great potential for both sides to tap on complementary strengths and grow together. To maximise this potential, we must improve cross-border connectivity,' he said on Sunday. He said that today, the Causeway is the busiest land crossing in the world, which gets even more congested during weekends and holidays. To provide a long-term solution to this chronic congestion, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) had previously announced it was redeveloping and extending the Woodlands Checkpoint (WCP) in phases over the next 10 to 15 years. Under Phase 1, ICA will build an extension of WCP at the Old Woodlands Town Centre, with construction work for this phase scheduled for the third quarter of 2025. This extension, among others, will include new automated clearance facilities for cargo vehicles, arriving cars, and arriving motorcycles. Wong also informed that the Johor Bahru–Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link, which will connect directly to Woodlands North MRT Station in Singapore, is set to ease cross-border travel.
New Straits Times
an hour ago
- New Straits Times
Putin wins Ukraine concessions but doesn't get all he wants
IN a few short hours in Alaska, Vladimir Putin managed to convince Donald Trump that a Ukraine ceasefire was not the way to go, stave off US sanctions, and spectacularly shatter years of Western attempts to isolate the Russian president. Outside Russia, Putin was widely hailed as the victor of the Alaska summit while at home, Russian state media cast the United States president as a prudent statesman, even as critics in the West accused him of being out of his depth. Russian state media made much of the fact that Putin was afforded a military fly-over, that Trump waited for him on the red carpet, and then let the Russian president ride with him in the back of the "Big Beast", the US presidential limousine. But Putin's biggest summit wins related to the war in Ukraine, where he appears to have persuaded Trump, at least in part, to embrace Russia's vision of how a deal should be done. Trump had gone into the meeting saying he wanted a quick ceasefire and had threatened Putin and Russia's biggest buyer of its crude oil — China — with sanctions. Afterwards, Trump said he had agreed with Putin that negotiators should go straight to a peace settlement and not through a ceasefire as Ukraine and its European allies had been demanding — previously with US support. "The US president's position has changed after talks with Putin, and now the discussion will focus not on a truce, but on the end of the war. And a new world order. Just as Moscow wanted," Olga Skabeyeva, one of Russian state TV's most prominent talk show hosts, said on Telegram. The fact that the summit even took place was a win for Putin before it even started, given how it brought him in from the diplomatic cold with such pomp. Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's former president and a close Putin ally, said the summit had achieved a major breakthrough when it came to restoring US-Russia relations, which Putin had lamented were at their lowest level since the Cold War. "The mechanism for high-level meetings between Russia and the United States has been restored in its entirety," he said. But Putin did not get everything he wanted and it's unclear how durable his gains will be. For one, Trump did not hand him the economic reset he wanted — something that would boost the Russian president at a time when his economy is showing signs of strain after more than three years of war and increasingly tough Western sanctions. Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign policy aide, said before the summit the talks would touch on trade and economic issues. Putin had brought his finance minister and the head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund all the way to Alaska with a view to discussing potential deals on the Arctic, energy, space and the technology sector. In the end, though, they didn't get a look in. Trump told reporters on Air Force One before the summit started there would be no business done until the war in Ukraine was settled. It's also unclear how long the sanctions reprieve that Putin won will last. Trump said it would probably be two or three weeks before he would need to return to the question of thinking about imposing secondary sanctions on China, to hurt financing for Moscow's war machine. Nor did Trump — judging by information that has so far been made public — do what some Ukrainian and European politicians had feared the most and sell Kyiv out by doing a deal over the head of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy. Trump made clear that it was up to Zelenskyy as to whether he would agree — or not — with ideas of land swaps and other elements for a peace settlement that the US president had discussed with Putin in Alaska. While deliberations continue, Russian forces are slowly but steadily advancing on the battlefield. According to the New York Times, Trump told European leaders that Ukrainian recognition of Donbas as Russian would help get a deal done. And the US is ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said. "For Putin, economic problems are secondary to his goals, but he understands our vulnerability and the costs involved," said one source familiar with Kremlin thinking. "It will be Trump's job to pressure Ukraine to recognise the agreements."
