Focus on Wall St, regional marts

Trading volume on Bursa Malaysia is expected to be light this week as market participants could stay on the sidelines ahead of the Aidilfitri public holiday on Friday.

INVESTORS are expected to turn their attention to the performance of Wall Street and other regional markets this week as activities on the local exchange start to slow down due to the upcoming Aidilfitri holidays.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average managed to erase its losses for the year and closed at near sessions high last Friday as investors welcomed a better-than-expected job market report.

The Dow rose 128 points, or 1.2 per cent, while the S&P 500 gained 14 points, or 1.3 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite rose 33 points, or 1.5 per cent.

The rally pushed Dow back into the black for the year. At roughly 10,448 points, the index is up nearly 0.2 per cent since it closed at 10,428 points on December 31 2009.

The jobs report, which came on the heels of improved manufacturing data earlier last week, helped ease some concerns about the US economy. But a report on the services sector activity came in weaker than expected.

Meanwhile, trading volume on Bursa Malaysia is expected to be light this week as market participants could stay on the sidelines ahead of the Aidilfitri public holiday on Friday.

The market last week saw strong support for finance stocks and heavyweight counters that helped the FBM KLCI to move above the 1,400-point level, thus hitting its highest ever mark in 30 months since February 2008.

It touched 1,441.8 last Thursday supported by rise on US stocks and strong foreign funds' participation.

On a weekly basis, the FBM KLCI advanced 24.62 points to 1,435.67 compared with the closing of 1,411.05 previously.

Stocks that could be in focus this week are Sunway Holdings Bhd and Hexagon Holdings Bhd.

Sunway said its unit and a joint-venture partner have won a 99-year lease term for a land parcel in Singapore worth S$165 million (RM384 million).

As for Hexagon, the engineering firm accepted a letter of award valued at RM53.32 million for works at a solar wafer plant in Sarawak.