Market Observations after the 1st Round of Blows Between the U.S. & Iran

Following the Iranian retaliation - after the assassination of Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani by U.S. forces - stock markets tumbled worldwide. Bursa suffered the same fate, with our FBMKLCI dropping 21.9 points to 1589.1. Losers outnumbered gainers by 883 to 171.

I have appended below is the table of gainers with volume. Ignoring the usual suspects, such as O&G stocks, gold trading stocks and Hang Seng put warrants, we have 2 gainers that warrant our attention, namely PMETAL and GHLSYS.


Table: Bursa's top gainers with volume on January 8, 2020

1) PMETAL

This stock is testing the line connecting its recent peaks at RM4.90-5.00. The likely reason for this hurried aggressive buying could be traders or investors positioning themselves to benefit for a bullish breakout in the price of aluminum.


Chart 1: PMETAL's weekly chart as at Jan 8, 2020 (Source: Malaysiastock.biz)


Chart 2: PMETAL and Aluminum's weekly chart as at Jan 8, 2020 (Sources: Malaysiastock.biz & Investing.com)

2) GHLSYS

2 days ago, GHLSYS, in partnership with Mastercard, has launched a tokenized e-payments solution that offers simpler, more secured and seamless digital payment experiences for consumers (here). This could be the next earning boost for the company, which has seen a steady rise in earnings since FY2012.


Chart 3: GHLSYS's weekly chart as at Jan 8, 2020 (Source: Malaysiastock.biz)


Graph: GHLSYS's rolling 4-Q revenue & profits for last 49 quarters

Based on the aggressive buying behavior observed yesterday, which was a pretty negative trading day, I say these 2 stocks could continue to see bullish buying support in the days ahead.