Market Review

MY: The local bourse ended lower as selling in selected heavyweights, including YTLPOWR (-36 sen), weighed on the FBM KLCI, despite positive market breadth, with 549 gainers outpacing 514 losers. Sector-wise, Energy (+1.68%) outperformed, while Plantation (-0.62%) lagged the most.

US: Wall Street rebounded on Monday as Anthropic’s IPO filing revived appetite for AI-related stocks. The S&P 500 climbed 0.70%, the Nasdaq gained 0.83%, and the Dow added 0.28%. Renewed technology-sector optimism and lower crude oil prices supported sentiment ahead of a busy week of earnings and the Fed’s policy decision.

The Day Ahead

US: Easing oil prices and Anthropic’s IPO filing may extend Wall Street’s rebound, although Wednesday’s FOMC decision and megacap earnings could cap gains. Stock-wise, we favour Zoom, whose Anthropic stake carried a reported value of USD3.13bn at end-July, against roughly USD97m invested. The IPO could catalyse a reassessment of its value. Meanwhile, Palantir may attract positioning ahead of its 2-Nov results, following target-price increases to a range of USD225-231 by Deutsche Bank and Piper Sandler, respectively. Anthropic’s multiyear compute commitments of at least USD114.5bn to Google and USD110bn to Amazon reinforce the cloud demand outlook for Alphabet and Amazon, both reporting this week.

MY: Following Wall Street’s rebound and improved AI sentiment after Anthropic’s IPO filing, we expect the FBM KLCI to recover today, with technology counters attracting interest. We continue to like INFOM, supported by (i) its RM614.2m order book following Malaysian and Japanese contract wins, (ii) regional growth opportunities through its Broadcom mainframe software distribution and support appointment across 12 Asia-Pacific markets, and (iii) stronger 1QFY27 results. We also favour selected glove counters with its recent price momentum. Lastly, power infrastructure engineering solutions provider SKACAP (M+ TP: RM 0.66) closes its IPO applications at 5pm today.