Malaysia's KLSE Stock Market Forecast for Friday, 20 May 2016

The FBM KLCI failed to continue with past two days bullish streak on Thursday and closed in red.The KLCI Closed at the level of 1633, almost in the same zone as on Tuesday. The bearish closing just before the last trading day of the week sends in negative signals with even less volume expected on Friday. Any move above the 1637 level is expected to touch the 1643 level whereas a bearish swipe below the 1621 level is expected to fall till 1611.

Stocks for Tomorrow

Today's Market Review for KLCI:

The FBM KLCI index lost 1.96 points or 0.12% on Thursday. The Finance Index fell 0.58% to 14267.19 points, the Properties Index up 0.16% to 1154.09 points and the Plantation Index rose 0.45% to 7516.1 points. The market fluctuated between a high of 1635 and low of 1621 throughout the trading session on Thursday. The KLCI continued with its losses inspite of overnight mixed performance in Wall Street after Federal Reserve meeting minutes boosted speculation that the central bank will raise interest rates as soon as June.

COMMODITY

CRUDE OIL: $47.23

GOLD: $1255.35

SILVER: $16.670 

MAJOR CURRENCY PAIRS

 SGD/USD: 0.7248

EUR/USD: 1.1220

GBP/USD: 1.4642

KLCI COUNTER SPECIFIC NEWS 

• Theta Edge Behrad recorded a net profit of RM1.04 million or 0.97 sen per share for the first quarter ended March 31, 2016 (1QFY16), compared with a net loss of RM2.18 million or 2.03 sen per share a year ago, mainly due to higher revenue contribution from value-added services and operations and maintenance works.
• Hup Seng Industries Bherad saw its net profit for the first quarter ended March 31, 2016 (1QFY16) nudge up by 2.77% to RM13.6 million from the RM13.23 million recorded in 1QFY15, mainly driven by higher sales.
• Aeon Co. (M) Behrad is allocating RM650mil of capital expenditures for its financial year 2016. It will go towards the opening of new stores and refurbishments of present ones such as those in Mid Valley.
• Volkswagen Group Malaysia Sdn Behrad aims to beat last year's record sales of 7,000 units, boosted by three new sedan models, despite expectations of softer total industry volume (TIV) this year.
• UMW Holdings Behrad, through its unit UMW Aerospace Sdn Behrad, has allocated RM750 million for capital expenditure over the next two-and-a-half years.
• IOI Corporation Behrad unit Loders Croklaan Group B.V. and Ireland's LCK Nutrition Ltd have called off their joint venture which would have involved the development of the nutrition lipid Betapol.
• Construction company Hock Seng Lee Behrad’s (HSL) net profit fell 17.17% to RM16.25mil in the first quarter ended March 31 from RM19.62mil previously.
• Petroleum National Behrad's group pre-tax profit fell 60% in the first quarter ended March 31, 2016 to RM6.8bil as it was impacted by lower revenue and prolonged weak prices and it expects the challenging times to continue.

GLOBAL FACTORS AND WORLD INDICES:

• Asia stocks were mostly down today, with energy and commodity firms taking a beating as investors digested news that an imminent Federal Reserve interest rate hike could be on the cards.
• Hong Kong stocks closed at the lowest level in 2-1/2 months today, joining most Asian markets in sliding on the growing possibility of another US rate hike soon.The Hang Seng index fell 0.7 per cent, to 19,694.33, the lowest close since March 1.
• China stocks were little changed today, and trading volume shrank to near 3-1/2-month lows as many investors sat on their hands amid economic worries and revived concerns US interest rates will go up soon.
• European stock markets slid at the start of trading today following losses across Asia and on Wall Street after the Federal Reserve hinted at a June interest rate hike.
• Tokyo shares closed flat today as investors weighed news that a US interest rate hike was increasingly likely, while energy stocks tanked after oil prices tumbled from six-month highs.
• US dollar jumped yesterday after the minutes to the Federal Reserves end-April meeting showed the central bank far more bullish about a possible June rate hike than markets had understood.
• Gold traded near a three-week low on concern that the Federal Reserve may raise interest rates as soon as June after the possibility was flagged in the minutes from policy makers' meeting last month.