Malaysian shares are expected to trade sideways with upward bias as local retailers buy into lower lines amid weak sentiment, dealers said. "Investors will stay on the sidelines. However, we could see retailers buying speculative lower liner stocks," Stephen Soo, senior analyst with TA Securities told AFP.
Soo said some financial institutions would be announcing their results next week and they were expected to be bad. "We are still in the financial results season. Banks are hit quite bad. Investor sentiment will be weak," he said. Soo said the local bourse would also track the performance of major regional markets and US stocks.
For the week to November 14, the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index lost 12.3 points or 1.4 percent to 881.65 points.
Daily average volume fell to 759 million shares valued at 932 ringgit (259 million dollars) from 889 million shares worth 1.1 billion ringgit last week.