KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia is expected to trade lower, dragged by external uncertainties, especially in the US.

Affin Hwang Investment Bank vice-president/head of Retail Research Datuk Dr Nazri Khan Adam Khan said market sentiment is expected to be influenced by the divided opinion on US interest rate hike in December, as well as uncertainties surrounding US President Donald Trump tax reform.

“Support is allocated at 1,700 level, while resistance is at 1,720 level,” he told Bernama.

He, however, remained optimistic that the market would recover in the near term, driven by the better global and Malaysian economy, coupled with the improving oil prices.

“Our economic performance is the best in three years,” he said.

He added that Brent, the global benchmark for crude oil, had been trading around US$63 per barrel this month, a level last seen in more than two years ago.

On a weekly basis, the benchmark FBM KLCI eased 4.43 points to 1,717.23 from 1,721.66 previously with the market mostly being influenced by external factors.

The FBM Emas Index declined 23.68 points to 12,393.24, the FBMT 100 Index shed 16.39 points to 12,046.89, the FBM Emas Shariah Index erased 18.6 points to 12,839.26, the FBM Ace dived 188.96 points to 6,402.62, while the FBM 70 was 33.36 points higher at 15,344.51.

On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index lost 112.65 points to 15,938.72 and the Industrial Index fell 13.88 points to 3,124.09, while the Plantation Index added 3.46 points to 7,911.99. Total turnover narrowed to 10.41 billion units, valued at RM11.51 billion from 12.87 billion units valued at RM11.83 billion last Friday.

Main Market volume fell to 6.6 billion shares worth RM10.84 billion from 8.33 billion shares worth RM10.98 billion previously.

Warrants’ turnover eased slightly to 1.17 billion units worth RM142.81 million versus last week’s 1.20 billion units worth RM144.62 million.

The ACE Market weakened to 2.6 billion shares valued at RM526.05 million from 3.28 billion shares valued at RM686.84 million transacted previously. — Bernama