KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 9): Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd (Kenanga IB) is maintaining its year-end target for the FBM KLCI at 1,715 points, pending a US interest rate hike, which economists and investors are expecting to happen by the end of this year.

Meanwhile, next year's target for the benchmark index is in the range of 1,785 to 1,795 points, Kenanga IB director and head of dealing Chan Tuck Kiong told reporters after Kenanga IB's KenTrade Trading Challenge II grand finale and prize presentation ceremony here today.

At 2.42pm, the KLCI shed 3.17 points to 1,682.53 points.

Apart from the US factor, he said Malaysia's economy and corporate earnings will play an important factor to catalyse market sentiment.

Currently, he said, the sentiment seems to be improving.

"The earnings (for the September quarter) reported so far seemed to be doing well. Some met analysts' expectations, while others exceeded expectations," said Chan.

He also singled out Success Transformer Corp Bhd as one stock that is favoured by Kenanga IB's research department, and believed there is still upside.

Chan also said retail investors seemed to have returned after a sharp drop in the first quarter of this year. To this, he said Kenanga IB is planning to maintain the momentum.

On the series of unusual market activity (UMA) queries that were issued by Bursa Securities last week, Chan said the queries were not meant to deter investors from participating in the respective counters' trading. Rather, the UMA query was to simply shed light on why the counters' share price and volume rose sharply compared to its usual quantum.

"I have inquired Bursa about this (UMA query). It is not issued to deter investors from trading in the counter. It only gives the space for the companies (being queried) to disclose if there is any corporate development yet to be disclosed," he said

"By right, if there were something in the works yet the company answered (in the UMA query's reply) that there is no corporate development — and then two months down the road it announced a new material development or corporate exercise, then the company could be charged for insider trading," added Chan.

Last week, Bursa slapped UMA queries on several companies including Lay Hong Bhd and Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd.

Meanwhile, this year's KenTrade Trading Challenge was won by 19-year-old Sim Yu Chin, who walked away with a Volkswagen Beetle 1.2TSi.

Preferring to look at a stock's technicals, Sim said he looked at the stocks with strong momentum in order to win the contest.

Supported by Bursa Securities, KenTrade Trading Challenge was designed to simulate real-life trading and was based on real-time market data from Bursa.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company's profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)