Immediate support fails, maintain short positions. Bulls attempted to stage a rebound during the earlier part of yesterday’s session, but this was foiled by sellers. After reaching a high of 1,584.5 pts, the index was pressed to a low of 1,566 pts, before closing at 1,571 pts – indicating a 4-pt drop. The performance suggests the bears are still in firm control over the index’s negative trend. With the downside breach of the 1,574-pt level, which acted as a crucial shortterm support point, the risk of the index retesting the 1,554-pt level and the 200-day SMA line has further increased – as a part of the extension of the index’s multi-week correction phase. We maintain a negative trading bias.

We recommend that traders stay in short positions. We initiated these at 1,579 pts, the closing level of 18 Feb. To manage risks, a stop-loss can be placed above 1,595 pts

The support levels are revised to 1,554 pts - the low of 29 Jan, and followed by 1,549 pts – the 200-SMA line level. Towards the upside, the immediate resistance is revised to 1,585 pts, followed by 1,595 pts.

Source: RHB Securities Research - 24 Feb 2021