Share Prices Expected To Be Higher

Share prices on Bursa Malaysia are expected to be higher next week with investors taking advantage of recovery signs in the global market, particularly with the US economy having posted improved economic data on Thursday, dealers said.
Despite the unveiling of Budget 2010 on Oct 23, most of the shares this week were in a correction mode after two weeks of continuous rally, coupled with the weak external environment, they said.
However, with the United States posting better-than-expected third quarter economic results that exceeded market expectations, Wall Street and other bourses around the world, including Malaysia, reacted positively.
"We expect there will be a lot of window-dressing activities coming to year-end, which will boost some of the stocks. In addition, investors' sentiment is currently positive as the world's largest economy is starting to turn around in this quarter," said an analyst from a local brokerage.
The US economy, which returned to growth in the third quarter, expanded at an annual pace of 3.5 per cent between July and September, surpassing economists' forecast of 3.3 per cent following the US government's aggressive stimulus packages.
The local bourse was in decline for four straight days before rebounding on Friday as investors took the cue from Wall Street's improved performance overnight.
On the local front, the government announced a review of the National Automotive Policy on Wednesday, which is expected to stir interest in automotive-related stocks next week.
Bank Negara Malaysia yesterday released the report on monetary and financial developments in September.
Yesterday, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) moved between 1,242.73 and 1,248.75 throughout the day.
On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the FBM KLCI declined 23.87 points to 1,243.23, the FBM Emas Index lost 178.85 points to 8,336.73, the FBM Top 100 Index was 171.87 points lower at 8,130.68, the FBM70 decreased 234.85 points to 8,149.88 and the FBM ACE Index dropped 6,013 points to 4,305.69.
The Finance Index fell 256.59 points at 10,535.17, the Plantation Index went down 118.41 points to 6,088.08 and the Industrial Index was 33.73 points lower at 2,667.95.
Turnover for the week declined to 4.585 billion shares worth RM5.979 billion from 5.044 billion shares valued at RM6.428 billion last week.
The Main Market volume went down to 3.807 billion shares valued at RM5.72 billion from last Friday's close of 4.408 billion shares worth RM6.289 billion.
The volume of call warrants, however, rose to 115.661 million shares worth RM25.167 million from 106.79 million shares valued at RM27.657 million previously.
The ACE Market volume dropped to 390.248 million shares valued at RM88.246 million from last Friday's 475.313 million shares worth RM86.844 million.