As the final quarter of the year gets started, our Malaysian bourse will likely carry over the trading pattern seen in the last few days - by oscillating in a tight range.

Most probably, the benchmark FBM KLCI will still be struggling to break past the immediate resistance level of 1,465 for the time being. On the other hand, while a downward bias may prevail due to profit-taking pressures, the bellwether is not expected to fall anywhere near to the first support line of 1,435 at the moment.

In a sense, the broadly sideways performance is only to be anticipated in the absence of follow-through buying momentum as news flows got thinner following the multi-week run-up. It is also a similar case on Wall Street, which saw its key equity indices slipping between 0.3% and 0.4% at the closing bell last night amidst a dearth of new developments.