KUALA LUMPUR: Buying activities on telco and banking stocks have pushed Bursa Malaysia to end the trading week in positive territory.
At 5pm, FTSE Bursa Malaysia (FBM) KLCI rose 0.25 per cent or 3.64 points to 1,456.38 versus Thursday's closing price of 1,452.74.
The key index opened at 1,452.00 and moved between 1,450.09 and 1,456.52 throughout the day.
The broader market saw decliners led gainers 467 to 432 while 436 counters remained unchanged.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice president Thong Pak Leng said the near-term outlook is expected to be positive, supported by the decent earnings performance for the third quarter of financial year 2023 and continuous foreign buying.
"As we enter the month of December, we anticipate some portfolio realignments and window dressing activities, hence expect the benchmark index to trend higher next week.
"Technically speaking, the benchmark index staged a rebound and broke out from the one-week bullish flag pattern with a long white candle yesterday.
"The index has broken the 20-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) of 1,453 today, hence, we believe there is upward momentum in the near term," said Thong.
The next resistance level is 1,465 (R1) and the psychological mark is 1,500 (R2).
"If the FBM KLCI Index surpasses the 1,465-resistance line, we foresee additional upward potential.
"As such, we anticipate the index to trend within the 1,445-1,465 range for next week, with immediate support at 1,445 followed by 1,430," added Thong.
On the index board, FBM100 dropped 0.02 per cent or 1.78 points to 10,394.78, FBM Emas slid 0.02 per cent or 1.75 points to 10,725.65 while FBM Ace added 1.34 per cent or 67.71 points to 5,133.16.