Weekly Market Update - 16 January 2017

Market Outlook

Equity Market Outlook

• KLCI had a mild rally last week as foreign investors returned to the local bourse and Ringgit strengthened against the USD.
• Market was looking for further fundamental news from the upcoming 4^th quarter corporate earnings before breaking out from this range bound trading range.
• Remained overweight in construction sector which will benefit from the on-going government spending and will look to take some profit on those have out-performed the index and switch into laggards.

Fixed Income Outlook

• The sovereign bond market remains largely unchanged last week with the exception of the 15-year benchmark, which rose 7-9bps due to the 15-year auction. The 15-year auction garnered robust demand, with a bid to cover of 2.5x and an average yield of 4.786%. Post auction, the 15-year benchmark recovered to trade at 4.72%.
• This week, Bank Negara will hold their Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, with most investors expecting the central bank to maintain their policy stance. Domestic inflation figures will be out this week as well, and is expected to remain stable at 1.7%.

Source: Lipper for Investment Management, as at 13 January 2017. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future performance. 

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