KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia is expected to see range-bound trading this week as investor sentiment is likely to remain cautious due to market volatility and the Russian-Ukraine conflict, a dealer says.

       Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said investor sentiment would remain jittery although bargain-hunting activities may emerge as well.

       “As such, we expect the FBM KLCI to be hovering within the 1,560-1,580 range for the week,” he told Bernama.

       Technically, he said the local bourse would see immediate support at 1,550 and resistance at 1,600 points.

       For the week just ended, the FBM KLCI was mostly lower, especially on Monday during which it slumped 37.53 points to its intraday low of 1,565.57 at closing, as the Russian-Ukraine tensions continued to hurt investor sentiment.

       However, the announcement on the reopening of Malaysia’s borders on April 1, 2022 had somewhat lifted market sentiment on Wednesday.

       The move is in line with the government’s plan on entering the “Transition to Endemic” phase as well as efforts to revive the overall national economy, especially the tourism industry which was badly hit by the pandemic.

       The local market was negatively impacted by the continued spike in crude oil prices as Western governments imposed sanctions to isolate Russia by taking steps to cut it off from global oil markets.

       This drove oil prices to surge to near 14-year high, with the global benchmark Brent crude hitting US$139 (RM583.04) per barrel on Monday, sparking concerns on inflation.