By Niam Seet Wei

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 17 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia is expected to stay flat in quiet trading next week, as the country will be celebrating a public holiday next Tuesday in conjunction with Prophet Muhammad's birthday. 

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd Head of Research, Kenny Yee said profit-taking is also anticipated to take place due to the recent gains on the local bourse, leading the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) to trade between 1,690 and 1,710 points next week.

"Bursa Malaysia would likely be supported by the weak ringgit against the US dollar, as it would make local stocks more attractive to foreign investors," he told Bernama.   

However, Yee noted that the local stock market would also be influenced by external factors such as crude oil prices and Wall Street's performance.

Meanwhile, he also discounted the possibility of the slower third quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth, as well as corporate earnings results, having any implications on the local bourse’s performance.

“Market participants have already expected that," he said.

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) today announced that Malaysia's GDP grew by 4.4 per cent for 3Q 2018 compared with 6.2 per cent in the same period last year, driven by strong private consumption following the zerorisation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) during the quarter.

According to BNM Governor Datuk Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus, the country's GDP rose by 4.7 per cent in the first three quarters, and was on track to register a 4.8 per cent growth in 2018.

For the week just ended, Bursa Malaysia was traded lower for the first two days but rebounded for the remaining three days on bargain-hunting activities and steadied crude oil prices.

The local stock market was mainly influenced by the performances of Wall Street and regional markets, as well as the softer ringgit and crude palm oil (CPO) prices.

On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the benchmark FBM KLCI settled 1.71 points lower at 1,706.38.

The FBM Emas Index rose 21.80 points to 11,868.06, the FBMT100 Index inreased 29.22 points to 11,717.35, but the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 55.89 points to 11,955.80.

The FBM 70 perked 142.71 points to 13,988.70, while the FBM Ace was 12.52 points better at 4,945.12.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index jumped 102.57 points to 17,301.67, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.71 point to 174.01 while the Plantation Index was 106.09 points lower at 7,256.64.

Comparing Friday-to-Friday, weekly turnover widened to 8.08 billion units worth RM7.62 billion from 6.26 billion units worth RM6.59 billion.

Main Market volume improved to 5.06 billion shares worth RM6.81 billion versus 4.09 billion shares worth RM6.12 billion last Friday.

Warrants turnover advanced to 1.56 billion units valued at RM398.12 billion against 1.07 billion units valued at RM263.87 million previously.

The ACE Market volume climbed to 1.45 billion shares worth RM406.14 billion compared with 917.68 million shares worth RM205.37 million.

The market will be closed next Tuesday (Nov 20) for Prophet Muhammad's birthday. 

-- BERNAMA